Vamp High
by littlemissjennifer
Summary: Anni, a 15-year-old girl, has just been turned into a vampire. What does Vamp High have in store for her? How will she survive?
1. Dedication

**Note: Yo! I hope you all love my story... I can tell you now, if I don't update for a while, it means I'm still writing...**

**Anyway...**

_This book is dedicated to:_

_My best childhood friend Candice._

_Thank you for your great ideas. I couldn't have made this book without you._

_My good friend Danielle._

_Thank you for always being there for me, even through the tough times._

_My flute buddy Annissa._

_Thank you for your great inspiration. I'm sure you'll grow up to be a great Professor H._


	2. Prologue

**Prologue**

As I watched the sun set, an oddly shaped shadow in the corner of my room caught my attention. I turned slowly towards the spot and something lashed out and bit me. A vampire. I screamed out in pain as the vampire injected the venom containing whatever it took to turn me... vamp. Then, just as suddenly as the pain started, it stopped and the feeling was warm and tingly in my veins. I could feel myself getting sleepy and I turned my head slightly to see my transformer. He was tall and had jet black hair that hung around his face. His eyes came up from my neck to meet my gaze and it felt like I was looking into a never-ending pool of dark brown. Then, when he finished transforming me, he unhooked his fangs from my neck and licked my wound... I mean eww!!! Who wants some random vampire licking your neck??? And then, I fell asleep; watching his beautiful face drift away from me.


	3. Chapter 1: The Transition

__

Recap --- Then, when he finished transforming me, he unhooked his fangs from my neck and licked my wound... I mean eww!!! Who wants some random vampire licking your neck??? And then, I fell asleep; watching his beautiful face drift away from me.

* * *

**Chapter One – The Transition**

My door was being knocked on. I could hear it in the back of my mind, but I just couldn't muster the strength to yell out, 'Go away! Sleeping here!' The knocker was very persistent though and eventually, I came to my senses. My eyes fluttered open and I quickly scanned my room for the vamp-dude while yelling out, "Just a minute." I was disappointed. The vamp-dude had gone. 'Oh well... who needs a vamp-dude anyway?' I thought to myself. I walked to my dresser, ran a comb through my hair until it felt semi-decent and I unlocked my door. It was my idiot ex who really doesn't get that we weren't together in the first place 'I think he's a bit slow...' I added in my head under my breath. I mean, who would go out with snot-rag-pimple-face-Josh??? Certainly not me!!! I only date them if they're totally HOTT!!! Which Josh is totally NOTT!!! I slammed the door in his face and locked it again, suddenly remembering that I had just been transformed and had to check if The Bite had gone away. I rushed to my dresser, turning on my lamp on the way. I flicked back my long hair... hey, wait a minute... I did not have long hair... the last time I checked, I had really short hair!!! Oh well, a great side effect. I'll just go to the hairdressers tomorrow... Anyway, I flicked back my long hair and peered at my neck. There was barely a scratch. What the hell??? I thought that vamp-dude had definitely bitten me... well there was only one way to check... I smiled at myself in the mirror... Yep, I definitely have fangs... Well great... that means one more side effect that I don't want to happen... Vampire High School... I'd looked at it on Google Earth before and it totally looked darker than the rest of the Earth... I checked it up again... of course, it was a block away from me... I thought that my odds of getting transformed were higher than everyone else's but I never thought that it would happen so soon. Suddenly, my mobile rang and I was distracted from my aimless pondering. I flipped it open, "Hello this is Anni Stoker speaking."

"Good evening, Miss Stoker." A dark voice replied, "I am Walter. I need you to please follow my instructions."

"Okay..." I replied, mystified at how deep this guy's voice sounded.

"Good. I'm glad you're co-operating, Miss Stoker. Many newcomers to our... community are repulsed by us." He paused before continuing, "You must come to Vampire High School, Miss Stoker. Please pack a bag and walk outside. There will be a car waiting for you. Do you understand?"

"Sure." I replied, a bit worried that I would never see anyone again.

"Good. Oh, and by the way, you'll see everyone in due time. You can visit them in the school holidays." He said to my thoughts.

"O-okay..." I stammered, "I'll be 20 minutes. Bye."

"Bye." Walter said, and the phone went dead.

I walked over to my wardrobe, pulled out everything and plonked them into my already waiting suitcase... I guess that vamp-dude that bit me had pulled it out for me. I sorted through all of my drawers, pulling out shoes and underwear and socks and bras and stuffing it all into the suitcase.

Then it hit me... I didn't have a suitcase... especially not a cool purple one that could fit everything into it although it was half the height of me... I sighed 'I guess it's a gift from that cool vamp-dude that bit me...' I thought and then I went back to stuffing.

After about another fifteen minutes, I was packed. I walked downstairs, carrying the unusually light, yet stuffed full to overflowing, suitcase and my handbag downstairs. I trotted into the kitchen, "Everyone, sorry I've gotta go. I've been bitten. I'm an official vamp-chick now. Love ya." I said to everyone who would listen.

"Good for you honey. See you in the school holidays." my dad said, totally unabsorbed in my slight dilemma.

"I'll miss you darling." said my mum, rushing up from the dinner table and hugging me.

"Woah!!! A real live vamp-chick... That rocks sis!" said my newly enthused younger sister, Sky.

"Cya later dork." said my stupid older brother, Kirk.

"Don't forget about me!" said Josh.

"I won't." I said, crossing my fingers behind my back.

I walked out of the kitchen and down the hallway. I stepped over the threshold into the night and I finally felt at one with myself. I hopped down the three steps off the porch to the little winding path in my front garden and stood at the gate, waiting for my ride. While I waited, I called my bestie, Trisha, "Hey Trish!" I said.

"What is it Anni, I'm doing homework." she replied.

"Well you'll totally not believe it but I've been turned vamp-chick!!!" I gushed.

"What?!? No! You. Can't. Be. Serious!!! I'll lose you!!!" she said, totally thrown into a bestie-frenzy, "I'll never talk to you again if you turn into this... this... THING!!!"

"It's not my choice, Trish." I explained angrily, "I can't choose what I become and what I don't become."

"Well then I suppose that means goodbye then." she said huffily and she slammed the phone on the receiver.

"Goodbye." I said into the dial tone.

Then, my ride pulled up. A tall, bulky-from-muscle man got out from the driver's seat, "Good evening, Anni. I'm Jason. Nice to meet you." he said, extending a hand.

I took it and replied, "Nice to meet you too Jason. Let's go!" now excited by this cool vamp-chick I was becoming.

"Uh... sure thing." he said, a bit taken aback by how enthused I was about becoming vamp.

I put my bag in the boot and jumped into the back seat of the car where I was greeted by a girl my age who was slightly shorter than I was, but I suppose that means she's tall, had liquid-blue eyes, long, blonde hair and pale white skin... who doesn't?... and an older guy who was average height with luminescent green eyes, short, black hair and a shade darker than the girl... I stand corrected... vamps CAN get tans.

"Good evening again Miss Stoker." said the deep voice I recognised as Walter's straight away, "You are fine I gather."

"Yes. Just a bit annoyed at my friend." I replied although I knew it wasn't a question and that he was just observing my thoughts.

"Yes. Yes. Well you'll see her in the holidays." he paused and opened his mouth to say more when the girl spoke.

"Hiya Anni!" she said, "I'm Mel. I'm your new roomy!!! We'll have sooo much fun together!!!" she paused to catch her breath, "Sorry 'bout that. I'm a bit excited too, you see I've been waiting to have a new roomy for a whole month and when I found out you were coming, I just couldn't wait!!!" she had started to bounce crazily on her seat which had nothing to do with the crazily fast driving that Jason was doing.

"Hey Mel. I'm so happy to have a roomy. I always wondered what having a roomy would be like. I always thought that having a roomy my age would be heaps fun." I said as excited as she was and mirroring her bouncing.

"I'm glad you two are so excited and I'm sure you'll get along just fine, but could you please stop bouncing? You're making the chair shake." said Walter calmly.

"Make that the whole car." added Jason.

We reluctantly stopped bouncing but we kept grinning at each other from ear to ear and then bursting into fits of giggles.

"If you look to your left, that's where the car park is so if you ever get a car or need a taxi, go to the car park and it will be waiting for you." pointed out Walter.

"Uh... okay," I said. "We're here, aren't we?"

"Oh yeah! We're here! I'll show you to my... our room." Mel corrected herself.

"Be sure to bring her to breakfast." replied Walter.

"Breakfast?" I said totally confused, "It's dinner-time."

"Oh no. At Vampire High School our nights are our days and our days are our nights. It may not bother the baby-vamps, being you lot, much but the sun affects adult-vamps very severely."

"Oh. Okay. Well whatever it is, I'm starved."

"Come on. We have heaps to do." said Mel, tugging on my arm.

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	4. Chapter 2: Friends

_"Be sure to bring her to breakfast." replied Walter._

_"Breakfast?" I said totally confused, "It's dinner-time."_

_"Oh no. At Vampire High School our nights are our days and our days are our nights. It may not bother the baby-vamps, being you lot, much but the sun affects adult-vamps very severely."_

_"Oh. Okay. Well whatever it is, I'm starved."_

_"Come on. We have heaps to do." said Mel, tugging on my arm._

* * *

**Chapter Two - Friends**

"First things first," Mel said, lazing on her bed, "this place, to the teachers, is Vampire High School, but to us baby-vamps it's Vamp High, or VH for short."

"Kay... Sure..." I replied while unpacking everything.

"Secondly, I have this rule about our room. You clean your side, I'll clean mine. Got it?"

"Sure. Sure." I said absently.

"And lastly, my things are your things so you can borrow whatever you want... except for my new stilettos..." she trailed off, probably still thinking of her stilettos, "Oh... I almost forgot, we don't have a school uniform but it's customary to wear dark colours."

"Great! I only wear dark colours." I said proudly.

Mel walked over to my walk-in-wardrobe and strode inside. She smiled at all of my millions of pairs of shoes, and jeans, and black tank-tops, probably thinking that if what hers was mine, mine was hers... but when she came to my dresses and tees, she burst out laughing. I rushed into the wardrobe and found her in a ball on the floor, crying tears of laughter. "What's so funny?" I said.

"It's just... It's just you said you've got all dark stuff..." she burst into another round of giggles.

"Yes... I do. Lots of violet and black and navy..." I paused to think of what other dark colours I had when Mel yelled out, "I never knew hot pink was a dark colour!" and we both fell to the ground in a fit of laughter.

There was a sudden rap at the door, followed by a hasty, hushed conversation. Mel and I picked ourselves up off the floor and wiped our tears to open the door. Instantly, a blast of noise hit me. It was as if the small clan of people had amplified their voices with a boom box.

"Woah! Woah! Woah! Guys, you're giving me a damn headache here!" yelled Mel over the racket. Instantly the room went quiet and everyone's attention diverted from Mel to... me. Oh great...

"Everyone, meet Anni. She's my new roomy!!!" said Mel in her usual bouncy voice.

"Hi... everyone???" I said, still a little confused at how four people could make such a loud noise.

"Oh... I almost forgot," Mel said, "This is Liam, Jesse, Lilli and Jessica," she pointed at each of them respectively.

"Hey Anni! We've been waiting for you!" said Lilli. She was tall, thin, chocolate coloured and had beautiful brown eyes. Her brunette hair fell down to her waist in cute ringlets and she looked exactly like a runway model.

"Yeah. Mel's been bugging us since this morning. It gets sooo on your nerves!!!" said Jessica. She was also tall, thin and chocolate coloured, but her eyes were a stunning shade of emerald green. Her hair was also up to her waist but was a darker shade of brunette and was slightly less curly than Lilli's. She too looked like she had popped out of a magazine.

Lilli and Jessica must have noticed me studying them because they said together, "Anni, if you haven't noticed, we're twins."

I was stunned. I had never actually seen twins in my whole entire life before. "Woah. That's so cool." was all I could say.

"By the way, Liam and I are..." Jesse started.

"Twin brothers!" Liam finished.

Okay... this was weird... even for vamps this was weird... and I wasn't saying that vamps were weird... but this was just... beyond belief. There was no way anything could get any weirder.

"Oh... and they're twin couples... Liam and Lilli, Jesse and Jessica." said Mel.

Okay... things just got totally weirder. "Cool!" I made myself smile and say.

I turned to face the twin-bro-vamps. They did look very similar. They were both way tall, slightly taller than the twin-sis-vamps, bulky-from-muscle, pale skinned and both had a different shade of blue eyes. Jesse had sky blue and Liam had an ocean blue. Their hair was kept short and messy in a cute kind of way and they looked like they were dating models... which technically, they were.

I felt odd amongst this close group. Then I thought, 'Hey! I still have Mel.' and I felt totally calm after that.

"Okay guys. I gotta go get some clothes on. See y'all at brekkie???" I asked, slightly more confident.

"Sure. Mel knows where our usual booth is. Cya!" said Jesse and they all left.

I plonked myself on my bed, "Woah! Your friends sure seem like a handful!" I exclaimed.

"Once you get to know them, you'll find them as close as home. By the way, they're not _my_ friends, they're _our _friends." Mel flashed me a smile which was so warm and whole-hearted that it made me smile back.

I walked to my walk-in-wardrobe and pulled out a pair of navy jeans and a baggy navy tee with a little white flower pattern on the bottom right corner. I then sat in front of the dresser and combed my hair, wishing I had short hair again. After applying a light layer of makeup, I was ready to go. I walked outside to where Mel was sitting, listening to her iPod and humming along while making funny air-drumming actions and flicking her wild, blonde hair around everywhere. I tapped on her shoulder, "Let's go eat. I'm sooo hungry!!!" I said and my stomach growled at just the right time to add extra effect.

"Sure." she said. "You should grab a coat. It's much colder outside now that it's night-time."

"Sure." I replied grabbing my coat, throwing on my black skates and literally rolling out the door. Mel hurried to keep up with me, locking the door with the swipe of a cute pink key-card which she told me I would get soon in whatever colour I wanted.

"Mel, are we allowed to cut our hair? I mean I like my hair long and all... but it just doesn't feel right. I've had short hair all my life and I was wondering if I could cut it again." I babbled to Mel.

Mel smiled sweetly and said, "Sure Anni, if you don't mind cutting it yourself... or I could help!"

"Okay. Tomorrow then?"

"Sure. Tomorrow."

We walked in silence the rest of the way to the canteen. When we got there, my ears exploded as the noise hit me once again. I spotted our table and sat down. All the noise disappeared... well not literally, I just blocked it out. I mean there were so many talking people that I couldn't hear half of what Liam was saying. It sounded like, "Age... Brothers... Boyfriend... Sisters???"

I guessed he wanted me to answer a few questions. So I did. "I'm 15 years old, have an older brother who's 18 and totally annoying and a younger sister who's 12 and adores me and I have an ex who isn't really my ex coz we were never dating in the first place called Josh. What about you guys???" I said.

Mel replied first, "We're all 15 here, I have an older and younger sister, both of them two years age difference to me and I don't have a boyfriend."

"We're twins and we have no siblings..." said Jessica.

"Yeah, and we have two gorgeous boyfriends sitting opposite us!" finished Lilli, batting her eyelashes at Liam who blushed.

"We have two stunningly beautiful girlfriends sitting opposite us too..." started Liam.

"And we're twins and we have an older brother who's 19. He looks completely different than us." ended Jesse.

"His name's Cole." said Jessica.

"And he just walked in!" exclaimed Lilli.

I stood up and turned around to look in the direction of the canteen door. All I saw were those bottomless brown eyes on his beautiful face.

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	5. Chapter 3: First Period Anxiety

_"His name's Cole." said Jessica._

_"And he just walked in!" exclaimed Lilli._

* * *

**Chapter Three – FPA (First Period Anxiety)**

I woke up and saw white all around me... 'Where am I???' I thought.

"You're in the nurses' wing, Anni." answered Walter.

"Oh..." I said, attempting to sit up and realising that it was impossible for me to move, "What happened to me?"

"You were in the canteen, you stood up and apparently turned towards the door and then you just collapsed... from what appears to be excessive beating of the heart?"

I didn't reply. I remembered what it was from but I was keeping it at the back of my mind. Instead, I played it innocent and replied, "Oh... maybe I was thinking of my boyfriend back home. I saw someone who looked heaps like him." I suppressed an image of Josh from appearing in my head and instead thought of this really cute football jock, Billy Stanley, who I could match up as any one of the baby-vamp-dudes here.

"Ah. I see." He said, taking my bait, "Get some rest and you'll be let out at lunch... twelve a.m."

"Thanks, sir." I said and drifted into a sleep filled with my new friends... and Cole.

When I woke up, I found my friends crowded around my bed. I sat up, shaking my head.

"Morning sleepyhead. I've got your lunch, spaghetti bolognaise, and your timetable, you have NT next, and your clothes, I got new ones out." said Mel, carrying a bag stuffed full of my stuff.

"Thanks Mel, you really didn't have to." I replied, accepting the bag.

"No problems!" she said, and then added to the others with a wink to me, "Come on guys, lets clear out so Anni can change."

I nodded to her to show my appreciation for her bringing my clothes as I really didn't like the random gown they put me in. Mel nodded back and grinned in whole-hearted understanding as if she had been in here too many times that she knew exactly what I meant.

I pulled out everything and laid them on my bed around me. Spaghetti bolognaise in a little Tupperware container, my timetable, and my black skinny legs and my lowest cut black tank top with purple patterns up one side. I wondered why she had brought them, 'I mean what could NT be that I needed to be so dressed up for?' I thought, but I trusted her judgement better than mine when it came to VH so I threw them on, put my hair up in a fancy clasp that I found at the bottom of the bag, along with a light layer of purple and black, sparkly eye shadow and the same shade of lipstick. Finally, I slipped on my awesome black stiletto boots and opened the curtain. All of my friends gaped at me except for Mel. She was grinning.

"What?" I asked absolutely confused.

"We were just wondering," started Jessica.

"Why you are so dressed up for NT." finished Lilli.

"Oh shut up you two." said Mel, "It's what I picked out for her to wear for NT. Coach... I mean **Cole** said that she needed to be in the most likely thing she would wear to a party in case she ever got in that situation." she emphasised the word Cole and gave me an I-need-to-talk-to-you-after-we-get-rid-of-them-look and I understood fully what she meant.

"Well I'm just going to go to our room now Mel, can you come with me, I don't exactly know where we are." I said, not completely lying. I had a photographic memory and I knew where our room was, just not where I was at that exact moment.

"Sure. You guys go on ahead to NT. We'll catch up later." Mel said to the rest of them, and everybody said see ya and left.

"Okay, fill me in." I demanded as we walked out of the building a full five minutes later.

"NT is Ninja Training. NT is what we do as babies. When we're children we go to DT which is Detective Training, then teenagers get ST which is Spy Training and the adults get VT which is obviously Vampire Training. Our coach for NT is Cole, Jesse and Liam's brother. He volunteered to take the class as he had already passed it himself. Cole's a teenager already. He has two more years until he's a vampire. As you know he's nineteen and he's totally single. I saw how you were eyeing him before you collapsed and from excessive beating... how'd you explain that to Walter?"

"Woah... that was just an overload of info... firstly, did Cole really want us to come in these type of clothes or is this just your way of saying I-totally-know-you're-into-him?"

"No. We all really did have to come in those types of clothes. I need to change into mine."

"Okay, good... secondly, I just thought of something else and repressed the real reason why I collapsed. That's how I tricked Walter."

"Woah! That's amazing! Only second year teenagers start developing the mental capacity to do that!"

"Really? Cool... thirdly, he's the one who changed me... into a vamp."  
"WHAT!?!?!" she exclaimed, "So you're not into him? And he CHANGED you?"

"Yeah... what's the problem... he changed me... but I never said I wasn't into him..."

"So you **are** into him... hmm? That's great. Keep it in the family!"

"In the... OH! Jesse and Liam's brother. I can't go out with him. Not now that I know his BROTHERS and I'm FRIENDS with them. Plus, he's four years older than me. Seriously!"

"Oh come on Anni. Four years is nothing. He dated an adult vamp when he was seventeen and the vamp was twenty-one!"

"Yeah... he might be like that but I'm four years YOUNGER than him."  
"Oh who cares? I'm not taking any more of your bullshit! So shut up and forget about it. We're here and I need to get dressed. We can go to the training room together." she said and walked into the room in a huff.

I looked at my bedside table. There was a dark purple key card for me. I was overjoyed; but I was a bit suspicious that they knew what colour I wanted, though I supposed that they just read my mind. Just then, Mel got out of the wardrobe in her new silver stiletto boots, similar black skinny leg jeans to mine, and a hot pink halter neck mini dress. She had applied a thin layer of pink and black eye shadow and hot pink lipstick.

"Let's go!" I said, excited about our similar fashion sense.

"Sure!" she said, reading my mind (not literally), and sweeping me out the door, down the stairs and into the coldness of the night.

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	6. Chapter 4: Ninja Training

_"Let's go!" I said, excited about our similar fashion sense._

_"Sure!" she said, reading my mind (not literally), and sweeping me out the door, down the stairs and into the coldness of the night._

* * *

**Chapter Four – NT (Ninja Training)**

We entered the training room ten minutes early. It felt like hours had passed since my friends woke me up, but it was only twelve thirty a.m. and only half an hour had passed.

Jessie, Liam, Lilli and Jessica came up to us in a babble of "Woah! You look great!" and "I really like your shoes!" and "Are you sure you're gonna be able to ninja in that?" And while Mel quietened them, I gave the room a full sweep, inspecting my surroundings and searching for Cole. The room was very spacious and the roof was approximately fifty metres high, but there was no sign of Cole anywhere. I was very disappointed.

"He's always three minutes late but today he'll be two minutes early coz you're new." whispered Mel into my ear. Suddenly the twin-couples stood staring at us with puzzled, expectant eyes.

"I'm just a bit nervous. I've never done self-defence or any kind of ninja training before. I'm a bit worried so Mel's just re-assuring me that she'll go easy on me." I spoke to the expectant eyes, not meeting Mel's or they'd see the truth behind them.

Exactly seven and a half minutes later, Cole came in and my heart fluttered. Mel squeezed my hand to tell my heart to shut up and it worked. Cole walked right up to our little group, nodded at his brothers, and motioned for me to follow him to what appeared to be a small platform at the front of the room that I hadn't noticed before. I followed in silence and kept my head down as everyone stared at Cole and me walking up to the front.

"I'm Coach Cole and I take NT classes every Tuesday and Thursday after lunch." Cole whispered to me as we walked, "I'm going to introduce you to the class." he paused before turning to the class and speaking in a loud, carrying voice, "Good afternoon class. This is Anni Stoker. She is very new to this so don't stare at her. We all were like her once in our lives. Anni has had no training before in her life but I'm certain that she'll fit in well among all of you. Please make Anni welcome." Everyone clapped politely as I waved unconfidently from the platform. I turned to Cole to see him nod me off the stage and I stepped down and made a bee-line straight to my friends who thumped me hard on the back when I arrived.

"Please partner up and we'll do some basic warm-ups. First, name yourselves victim and assassin. The assassin must strangle the victim and the victim must get the assassin off. Then, after you have mastered that, the victim must be able to do a double flip jump over their assassin, see how high you can jump over them at different heights. Okay, you may begin." Cole blew a whistle and Mel grabbed my arm.

"You can be the victim right?" I asked her.

"Sure." she said.

I started to "strangle" her and she flipped me over onto my back, put her knee between us and dislodged my hands from her neck in less than half a minute.

"Woah! You're really good at that!" I said.

"Not really, you're just really bad!" she replied, "Jokes!"

"Okay. Do you want to do the jumping thing?"

"Sure."

I squatted on the floor and Mel double flip jumped over me. I got a bit higher, into a bent position, and again Mel jumped over me with ease. I stood tall and Mel jumped over me again. Finally, I raised my arms above my head and I saw the determination on Mel's face. She sprinted in a blur of black and pink and double flip jumped over me. I turned to see her land on her feet in an upright position.

"Oh my gosh! Seriously? How do you do that?" I asked.

"Practice." she replied, "Your turn!"

"Okay..." I said hesitantly before composing myself, getting my head in the right mindset and getting into position, ready to be strangled.

As soon as Mel's hands touched my neck, I flipped her on her back, placed my knee between us and dislodged her hands in a matter of seconds. I jumped up, shocked at what I could do. My eyes were wide as I stared down at Mel and she wore the same look of shock on her face. Cole walked up to us, "Anni, are you sure you haven't done this before, ever in your life?" he asked.

"Absolutely not." I replied.

"Well you must see me after class. Please continue with your training."

"Let's see how high I can jump Mel." I said to her.

"Okay." she replied and squatted on the floor.

I easily double flip jumped over her. As she got higher, I got higher; each time giving her a wide berth so I didn't risk hitting her accidentally. Finally, she was standing up with her arms stretched out above her. I crouched down and sprinted as fast as I could, jumped, flipped twice, clipping something at the top, and landing gracefully on the ground. Suddenly I realised everyone was staring at us so I turned to Mel. She motioned for me to look at my shoe. One of the heels had broken off. I looked at her, "Are you alright? I clipped something, probably with my shoe, when I was at the top of the arc. Did I clip you?" I asked her.

"N-no," she stammered, "look." and she pointed up at the roof.

I slowly tilted my head upwards and my sharp eyes caught sight of a black spike sticking out from the roof. There was a beam right below it and before anyone could say anything, my instincts took me there. I jumped up onto the beam which was about forty-five metres above the ground, then stood up. Balancing on one heeled shoe, I hopped the last five metres up, pulled the heel out and gracefully landed on the ground. Immediately, people backed away from me. The close circle that had formed around Mel and I had grown to a size that you couldn't recognize it as a circle anymore. Cole stepped towards me from the crowd, "Class is dismissed. Go to dinner early or go to your dorms. No one is allowed to be anywhere else." he said to the class and immediately everyone except my group of friends shuffled out of the room.

"Please can my friends stay? They're all I've got." I asked.

"Okay. If they must, but they mustn't repeat this to anyone in the school." he replied and my friends nodded and grunted their acceptance.

"You have never trained before, yet you are the only one with that speed, power and agility." Cole muttered to himself, "You must get extra training. I shall train you every afternoon before bed, after dinner. We will meet here. I understand that you have a photographic memory so when you come to classes on Tuesday and Thursday I expect you to learn what I have taught everyone in the lesson. You will be tested on it when you come to see me. Understood?"

"Y-yes Coach." I stammered.

"You are dismissed. Fix that shoe. You can't go around like that all term. They look nice on you."  
"Thanks." I replied, "Thank you very much."  
My group of friends and I hurried out of the training room, leaving Cole deep in thought.

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	7. Chapter 5: The Dent in the Wall

_"You are dismissed. Fix that shoe. You can't go around like that all term. They look nice on you."  
"Thanks." I replied, "Thank you very much."  
My group of friends and I hurried out of the training room, leaving Cole deep in thought._

* * *

**Chapter Five – The Dent in the Wall**

When we entered the canteen, everyone stopped talking at once. At a group of Asian-vamps, a girl was pushed outwards, towards me and she struggled to get back into the group. Eventually she stopped struggling and walked towards me, "Hi. I'm Lin. Nice to meet you."

"Umm... nice to meet you too Lin. I'm Anni." I said, extending a hand.

The girl shifted slightly to the left and gingerly took my hand, "I know you're Anni. Everyone knows you're Anni." she paused, not meaning it to have come out so weirdly, and amended, "What I mean is, because you're new, everyone knows who you are."

"Oh... okay... I thought it was probably coz of what happened in NT." I replied smoothly.

"U-umm... yeah... everyone thinks that was really cool, what you did." she stuttered, taking a step back and letting go of my hand.

"I can see that." I said to myself, but as it was so quiet, everyone heard me, "Oh... I'm sorry... No offense or anything... Wait... I'm the one who the offense is directed at... Oh whatever!"

"So... I really do think you're cool Anni." Lin fumbled around in her bag, "Can I have your autograph?" she extended a Hello Kitty notepad towards me.

I took the notepad and scribbled a note:

Hey Lin,

Hope we can hang out sometime when this whole thing blows over...

Lotsa luv

Anni

xox

I handed it back and she read it. I saw tears welling up in her eyes as she turned and walked quickly back to her place with her Asian group. I noticed that everyone was still staring at me so I said loudly to my friends, "Look at the time, it's almost past dinner-time. I'm starved." and everyone slowly turned back to their own conversations.

We sat down at our usual table and ate our lasagne in silence. Suddenly, Lin popped up from out of nowhere. She passed me a note and then walked quickly back to her table. I unfolded the piece of paper. It read:  
Thank you very much Anni

I really do hope we can hang out sometime.

Just in case, my mobile number's 0498-366-588.

Thanks again

Hearts

Lin

I read it and was touched by what this girl my age wrote. It was only thanking me and asking me to hang out with her, but deep down, I felt like I fitted in. That I wasn't a freak.

I walked back to my dorm in the light rain to change into some comfortable clothes. I threw on my black slacks and a purple t-shirt. I took off my boots and grabbed the heel from my shoulder-bag. There was super-glue already on the table so I sat down and glued it back on. As I waited for the glue to dry, I thought about what Cole had said... They look nice on you... I wonder what he meant by that. The glue was dry, so I tried on my boots. I had to agree with him, the boots looked great... but not with slacks on. Maybe they didn't look so great on me. Mel was in the shower so I waited for her to come out before asking her if she would try on my boots.

"But I'm in my pyjamas!" she said.

"Well I tried them on in these." I said, indicating the slacks.

"Okay, fine." she took the boots from my outstretched arms.

After she had zipped and buckled them, she stood up and strutted around the room. Even in pyjamas she looked good in them. 'So they didn't look nice on me coz they look nicer on Mel.' I thought, 'Then what could Cole have meant?'

"Honey, they look fine on you. I know... you think they look better on me coz I can carry them off in pyjamas and you can't carry them off in slacks, right? Well darling, if Cole says you look nice in them, he means that they look okay on you but you look nice. Get it?" Mel said, again reading my mind. It was like we were made to be best friends.

"Oh... yeah I get it... sorta... which reminds me, I have to go meet Cole in the training room for my practice." I replied, "You have to tell me everything you know about Cole when I come back okay? It'll be my first night so we have to stay up heaps late." I looked at my timetable. Friday it was two sessions of study first and I was wondering if I was allowed to sleep through that.

"Well that's what best friends are for! Reading your mind and telling great gossip!" she replied, "Oh... we can miss session one and two tomorrow. They're study slots so we can stay up late and sleep in!!!" she glanced at her watch, "Oh shit... you're late for first practice! Throw on your black sneakers and jump there. It'll take less time and there are heaps of trees for you to hide in, plus it's night outside."

"Kay... see ya... get some snacks for later!" I said.

Our room was on the top floor of the building. We had a set of stairs that wound up to the roof, but because I was late, I jumped out of the window into a nearby tree. I leapt from roof to tree to finally, ground. By the time I got there, I was only two minutes late. I walked into the training room but no one was there. Then I remembered that Mel said Cole was always three minutes late. I waited for a minute and sure enough, he showed up.

"Come with me please Miss Stoker." said Cole in his stiff teacher voice.

"Yes, sir." I replied, trying unsuccessfully to hide my laughter. His voice sounded funny when he was a 'teacher' but I suppose I hadn't really heard what it was like when he wasn't a teacher. My mind started to wander aimlessly when Cole stopped and I walked into him.

"Keep your mind on track Miss Stoker." he said, "Tonight we'll be doing some basic training to see how far you can take your... gift."

"Sure." I replied, "What can I do?"  
"I need to test your strength first so I'm going to throw different objects at you and you must deflect them like this." he showed me a movement as if I was pushing something away from me.

Cole threw the first object, a beanbag. I deflected it easily. He then threw a set of scales. I deflected that too. After, he threw things much faster; an encyclopaedia, a sack of flour, a sink, a bathtub, and an anvil, all of which I deflected as easily as if it were a feather. Finally, Cole was out of objects. He looked around to see if he had any more anywhere but he couldn't find any. Cole sighed and said, "I'm going to have to throw myself at you."

"WHAT?!?" I shrieked.

"I will throw myself at you as vampires are always heavier than ordinary objects. Try to deflect me."

"O-okay." I stammered. I got in a ready position, composed myself so there were no outside feelings intruding on my training, and nodded to signal that I was ready.

Cole launched himself at me and I was ready to deflect him. It worked. He flew backwards until he hit the wall and slid down it. I rushed towards him, "Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" I asked worriedly.

"I'm fine." he choked out.

I grabbed his arm, pulled him out of the dent he had made in the wall, and dusted the cement rubble off of his back. Suddenly I sensed him looking at me so I looked up to meet his eyes. Immediately I got lost in them and, although it was difficult, I turned away, turning my thoughts back to ones of concern and worry, not ones of love and passion.

"Do you need to go to the nurses' wing?" I asked.

"No. No. I'm fine, really." he paused, turning to face the wall to study the dent, then studying the room where many objects had splintered or cracked. His eyes travelled towards the door, "You have an audience." he whispered to me and I looked up.

Lilli, Jessica, Liam, Jesse and Lin were the first people I saw. I smiled at them until I realised that there were teachers hovering behind them.

"U-umm... what is everyone doing here?" I whispered to Cole.

"Your friends came to collect you and the teachers came to see if you were really what I told them you were... Really good." he replied casually, "You should go now. I have some cleaning up to do. Please grab some broken items and throw them in the bin on your way out."  
"Sure thing." I replied, "Thank you for doing this. I'm sorry for throwing you into a wall."

Cole laughed a hearty laugh, "It's okay. I learnt to never underestimate you again. And also to never throw myself at anyone again."

I laughed too and walked away from him with a wave. I could still hear him chuckling as I bent to pick up a couple of pieces of bathtub and the now dented anvil. I loaded them out of the door, into the already waiting dustbin. The teachers all stared at me as all the children had stared at me in the canteen this afternoon. I walked back inside, collected another load and threw that outside too. After another two loads, I was done and the only thing out of the ordinary in the training room now, was the giant Cole-shaped dent in the wall.

"You are a very strong girl Miss Stoker." said Cole as we walked back to the entrance where my friends and teachers still waited, "I went to the outside of the wall and there is now a giant crack down most of it. That cement is extra strong cement too, because vampires are a lot stronger than humans, so we make it thicker and at least seventeen times stronger."

"Woah." I said, "That's amazing!"

"Yeah. Pretty cool. That's what I said the first time I was told too."

We both laughed until we reached the entrance and everyone crowded around us. Cole and I exchanged a here-we-go-again-glance, suppressed our laughter, and I said, "Fire away."

"How do you do that? A male teenager is the heaviest known thing in the world!" said Walter.

"Well... I guess I was reborn this way." I replied.

"Yes... Most likely; but how do you explain how you concealed the truth from me in your mind at the nurses' wing today?"

"Well that was easy. I just thought of something else and visualised putting what I was thinking about in a box at the back of my mind."

Immediately murmurs of excitement broke out and I caught snippets of "...should move her up..." "dangerous to younger ones..." from the teachers.

"Umm... excuse me, but can I stay in all the same classes? I would rather not be more of a freak than I already am. At least I'll be with people of my own age and learn what I need to know as the basics. I'll do extra study if I have to but I really need my friends in my classes." I said.

"I understand." said Walter, "Of course you may stay in the same classes but a timetable will be made up for your extra classes and study times."  
"Yes, sir." I replied hastily, "May I please go to bed? I am dreadfully exhausted, you know, after throwing heavy objects into walls, and all."

Cole chuckled and said, "She could really do with the rest, sir. She's had a hard practice."  
"Okay then. Off you go to bed. But make sure you sleep!" said Walter.

My group and I walked off to the dorms as the teachers huddled in deep conversation... about me.

**Whaddaya think??? Review!!! =]**


	8. Chapter 6: Cole

_Cole chuckled and said, "She could really do with the rest, sir. She's had a hard practice."  
"Okay then. Off you go to bed. But make sure you sleep!" said Walter._

_My group and I walked off to the dorms as the teachers huddled in deep conversation... about me._

* * *

**Chapter Six - Cole**

We stopped at the dorm entrance. The giant glass doors stood high above us. Suddenly Lin stopped us laughing, "Sorry guys, it's not you. My other friends don't really like you Anni, but I think it's cool you can do all this advanced stuff... Anyway I told them I was going out with my boyfriend so I shouldn't be seen going in with you guys. I am really sorry."

"Hmm... Okay. I'll send you a text or a note or something later. See ya tomorrow!!!" I replied.

"See ya." everyone else said and Lin walked inside.

"I'm going upstairs first. I need to shower. I'll see y'all inside kay?" I said.

"Sure, see ya." replied Mel.

I jumped up onto the roof and found the set of stairs that lead to our door. I swiped my key card and walked down more stairs, kicking my sneakers off at the same time. I grabbed my pyjamas and rushed into the bathroom. I'd never been in the bathroom before and now that I had finally seen it, I almost feinted! It was purple-ish pink-ish themed and there was a spa in the right corner, a shower in the left corner, a counter running from the middle of the wall to three quarters the length of the room and a giant mirror covering the entirety of one wall. I filled the spa, set my pyjamas on the counter and my laundry in a chute which probably went to the laundry somewhere downstairs. I stepped into the spa. Immediately I felt myself relax and all my thoughts and feelings of concern, worry and anxiety leave me. All I felt was the warm water and bubbles, swirling around me and the honey scent soothed me into a kind of dreamy state. It felt like less than ten minutes before I heard rapping at the bathroom door and I snapped out of the dream immediately. All my before emotions hit me hard and I fell backwards into the spa. 'At least my body was relaxed,' I thought before hopping out and getting into my pyjamas.

I exited the bathroom, after towel-drying my hair, to find all my friends clustered on the beds, glaring at me.

"What?" I asked, totally clueless.

"You were in the bathroom for like an hour and a half!" exclaimed Lilli.

"We thought you drowned or something! What were you doing in there?" continued Jessica.

"I was in there for like ten minutes! And I was relaxing, by the way. I'd never been in the bathroom before. It's just so... WOW!!!" I explained.

"It's okay Anni, we forgive you." said Liam.

"This time!" said Jesse and we all laughed.

* * *

It was hours before everyone finally left our room to go to bed. So far I'd learnt nothing about Cole because I didn't want to tell Jesse and Liam about my crush on their brother. Finally Mel and I were alone. We both climbed into bed and turned the lights off. It was daytime and the sun was shining brightly around the edges of the curtain.

"Mel," I asked, "do you have any more snacks? We haven't talked about you-know-who yet."

"I know." she said excitedly, "I thought they'd never leave!" she paused, "Yeah. There are some more snacks in the fridge. Chocolate and other crap food in there, lollies and chips in the secret drawer. It's the funny bit above the fridge. It uses fingerprint recognition to get in."

I touched the secret drawer above the fridge. It opened. I pulled out bags of lollies and packets of chips and threw them on each of our beds. I then opened the fridge, pulled out a box of lamingtons and a few blocks of chocolate.

"We're going to be up for ages telling these stories." said Mel.

"Good." I replied, "I'm not used to sleeping in the day yet."

"Okay. What do you want to know?"

"Umm... what is there to tell me?"

"Okay, you know how Cole had a girlfriend before? Well she dumped him because he was too young for her, which means he knows what it feels like and he wouldn't ever dump anyone younger than him. This girl is a teacher here and when Cole sees her, he walks away. It's Professor Lee. She teaches art elective. We don't have any classes with her because we have music elective. You'll like it. Anyway, Lee always tries to find him but when she sees him, she gets cold feet and runs away... literally!" Mel paused to take a lamington from the box and munched on it slowly while she let her words sink in.

"So he has no interest in Lee anymore?" I asked hopefully.

"None whatsoever." answered Mel confidently, "When Cole was training you and you threw him into the wall he didn't get angry did he?"

"Nope."

"Well a couple of weeks ago, his mate threw him into the wall and it didn't dent so bad, but now you couldn't call them mates at all. Cole threw a fit and they got into a giant fight right there in the training session. The teacher thought it was great production and the whole class had to watch them fight. After the fight, the teacher criticised their technique. Trust me, that teacher must be loony! Anyway, Cole throws a fit at anything. He's very sensitive. Except when he's teaching. Then he's usually very stern and he never lets any feelings escape him."  
"But he didn't get mad at me. Maybe it was because I was new and I didn't know what to do?" I suggested.

"No, he went off at one of the new babies the other day for wobbling when she landed. I don't think it was because of that. I think it's because he likes you back." she giggled.

"Don't joke around Mel. He was acting all teacher-ish when he was teaching me today."  
"If you call laughing with you teacher-ish, then sure he was acting really teacher-ish. Plus, we were there since about five minutes after you started and I saw that intense moment between you two. You looked in his eyes didn't you?"

"Why does that matter?"

"I'm trying to prove to you that he likes you. That's why. According to Liam and Jesse, Cole does this freaky thing where his eyes look bottomless. Apparently when they were kids he used to try it out on them and they felt compelled to do anything he said. They were his guinea pigs and he only used it on them. Until one day he met a girl in the fourth grade and he used it on her. She dated him until he didn't like her anymore so he stopped using it on her and she dumped him. From then on, Liam and Jesse say he never used it on them again, but whenever he met a girl he liked, his eyes would go all wavy and bottomless. They'd see the same routine over and over again. He meets a girl, he uses his eyes, he gets bored, and he gets dumped. Until he met Lee. Lee changed his life. He had never used his eyes on her when she asked him out and when he did use his eyes on her she dumped him. I personally haven't had him do his eyes on me which I take as a good thing for you if you've had him do them on you." she took an open bag of chips and started munching, "How many times has he done it? Once? I s'pose you've only met with him twice and the first time wasn't very romantic. I mean, NT? Come on."

"Twice actually." I replied.

"Ooh! When?"

"Well the first time was when he changed me and the second time was just then. In special training after I threw him into the wall when I picked him up I could sense him looking at me. I looked up and his eyes were bottomless." I sighed.

"Awww... Love at first sight." Mel sighed, "I wish I had someone like that."

"So... I have a question about vampires in general."  
"Go ahead."  
"What stage can you start to read minds and can you feel emotions?"

"Woah! You can't read minds too can you?"

"No. Not yet. But I can sense it. Like I know what they say before they say it, or something like that."

"Oh. Why'd ya ask?"

"Well I was wondering if Cole could read **my** mind or feel **my** emotions coz I reckoned that he looked funny when he was being all teacher-ish and I thought it. Then I laughed and he softened a bit. So can teenagers read minds? And if they can, can they feel emotions too?"

"Yes. When you are a teenager, you start to read minds and of course you can feel emotions, that's part of reading minds." Mel stopped to look around for some more food. There was none so she continued, "So you think Cole read your mind?"

"Yes. Also when I looked into his eyes. He read it then too. I can sense when someone is in my mind. So I changed my feelings and thoughts. So I didn't give away too much."

"Oh come on Anni. If you both like each other then it doesn't matter if your thoughts give you away. You should develop your mind Anni. You're on the verge of mind reading! Ooh I'm so excited!"

"We should probably get some sleep now Mel."

"Yeah. I s'pose."

"But after all that sugar..."

"Yeah. I can't sleep either."  
"How about you help me cut my hair now?"

"Sure thing." Mel jumped out of bed and out of our room door. When she came back, she was holding a tray full of all sorts of hairdressing equipment, "We only have one kit per floor. This is ours."

Mel took the kit to the bathroom counter and placed a chair in front of the spa so I could see how short I wanted my hair. I sat on the chair and said, "This short please Mel." indicating halfway down my ears.

"No probs Anni." she said as she sprayed my hair with water, brushed through it, and started to chop.

I closed my eyes because I wanted to see the finished product. Mel started blow-drying my hair so it stuck out and I took that as my queue to open my eyes. I was shocked at the transformation. I mean sure, the long hair looked fine on me, but this was a million times better. Mel stopped and said, "Whadda ya think? Pretty good huh?"

"Yeah! I love it!" I replied, "Thanks heaps Mel."

"It took no time at all. I was happy to help."

We swept out my hair into the garbage and went to bed. Just as we hopped in though, a knock came at the door.

"Who is it?" Mel yelled.

"It's Coach Cole. I'd like to speak to Miss Stoker please." said Cole.

"Okay. Coming!" I yelled back. I hopped out of bed and over to the door. Mel and I exchanged a glance of anticipation just as I opened the door and then I saw Cole standing in my doorway.

"Good morning Miss Stoker. I'm here to give you your extra timetable. I decided it was better to do it in person in case it didn't get here early enough. Your first class is after school today with me. I'll see you at the training room. We need to fix the wall first so be prompt." said Cole in his teacher-ish voice.

"No probs Coach." I replied taking the timetable, "Thank you for delivering this."

"That's okay Anni." he paused, "Nice hair by the way. It really suits you."

"Thanks... sir?" I replied unsure of what to say.

"Sure. Sir works." he said with a hint of a smile playing at the edges of his lips, "See ya tomorrow then."

"Sure. See ya tomorrow." I replied, closing the door with a soft *click* then turning around and sliding down the door with a giant sigh.

Mel popped her head out from under her doona, "He likes you Anni."

"I know that now." I replied certain of myself.

"Why's that?" she looked at me puzzled.

"Well he called me Anni and he's never called me that. Plus, he complimented my hair. He complimented my shoes the other day too." I sighed again.

"Ah. I see. That's why you were so upset when they looked better on me. Well that doesn't matter. It's the thought that counts, and boy was he thinking of you. You never looked up tonight, but he was constantly looking at you. He never once looked around the room at all."

I made my way back to my bed with Mel still babbling on about how Cole was looking at me and I sighed and thought to myself, 'Geez Anni. It hasn't even been one day yet and you're the centre of attention.'

"Anni, Let's go to sleep." said Mel.

"I was asleep until you just talked." I said to Mel as she had interrupted my train of Cole related thoughts.

"Oh. Sorry. Goodnight Anni. See ya in the morning."

"Night Mel. Don't wake me up too early." I said, and then drifted off to endless dreams of Cole.

**Tell me what you think. Review =]**


	9. Chapter 7: Mind Reading

_I made my way back to my bed with Mel still babbling on about how Cole was looking at me and I sighed and thought to myself, 'Geez Anni. It hasn't even been one day yet and you're the centre of attention.'_

_"Anni, Let's go to sleep." said Mel._

_"I was asleep until you just talked." I said to Mel as she had interrupted my train of Cole related thoughts._

_"Oh. Sorry. Goodnight Anni. See ya in the morning."_

_"Night Mel. Don't wake me up too early." I said, and then drifted off to endless dreams of Cole._

* * *

**Chapter Seven – Mind Reading**

I woke to the sound of soft music coming from the bathroom. My muscles were very tense from only getting three hours sleep and sleeping in very uncomfortable positions all throughout the night... or day. Mel came out of the bathroom, humming a sweet tune, "Oh. Sorry Anni, I didn't mean to wake you. Was my music too loud?"

"Oh. No, no. It's fine. I needed to get up anyway. I wanted to take a quick shower before we went to breakfast. That's really sweet music Mel. Who's it by?" I said groggily.

"Oh. You wouldn't know her. She's not very famous." she replied shiftily.

"Try me. I know a million people in the music industry."

"Okay. Her name's Lola. Lola Sheppard."

"Lola Sheppard. No I've never heard of her before. That's strange. How do you know her?"

"Well, she's my mum." Mel mumbled.

"Woah! Your mum's famous? Alright! That's sooo awesome!"

"Not really famous. She writes music for fun. Our teacher, Professor Lynch, says I have her genes but I don't think I could ever compare to my mother. She's a beautiful singer. She even plays all the background music. Mum's really smart." Mel sighed while thinking of her mother.

"Well that makes her famous doesn't it? If she's famous to you?"

"I suppose." she paused, "We have music elective first. We're doing compositions, aural and rhythmic dictations. You'll like it."

I was seriously wondering why my whole timetable was the same as Mel's when she said, "It's coz they matched you ninety-eight percent the same as me. That's why we're roomies and all. They explained it to me that you were the highest match with me. So that means you probably play an instrument?"

"Yeah. I play guitar, piano and flute. I also sing. Why? What do you do?"

"Well I play guitar, piano and clarinet. I sing too. That's probably why they matched us up. Also, they put us in the same classes so you don't feel uncomfortable. At least you know one person in the class. Get it?"

"Yep. I get it. Anyway, I'm awake enough to have a shower now. What do we have after music elective?"

"English. We're story-writing today." she paused to think, "You should wear something plain. Leave nice things for tonight. With Cole. Wear your flats and a pair of blue skinny-flairs with that hot pink top on the top shelf now. I'll help you with your outfit for tonight at lunch."

"Okay sure." I said hopping into the bathroom after grabbing my clothes.

* * *

I came out looking extremely plain. Except for my hair. It was way short.

"That's great. Totally plain. Well except for your hair. But who cares?" said Mel.

"Cole cares." I replied.

"What's that?" she said.

"You said who cares about my hair and I said Cole cares." I said puzzled.

"Oh. My. Gosh!!!" said Mel jumping up and down excitedly.

"What? What?" I said puzzled.

"You read my mind! Literally! I didn't say anything before you told me that Cole cares."

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe it!"

"I know! Me either!" she said and by this time we were both jumping up and down crazily.

"You know it's true though." Mel said after our legs were getting sore.

"What's true?" I panted.

"That Cole cares about your hair. Or at least about you. I never thought of that. Last night's sugar rush semi-blurred my memories." she said thoughtfully.

"I don't think he totally cares about me yet. I have to hook him somehow. I'll try tonight."

"Yes. Hook your fangs into him." she said deviously, "Not literally." she added and we both laughed.

"Hey Anni, you know how you're super-strong and jumpy and all. I was wondering..." Mel started.

"Sure. I don't need to read your mind to know you want me to jump you to breakfast. Right?" I replied.

"Yeah. Please?"

"Sure. It's easier from the roof though so let's go."

"Alright." said Mel, swiping her card and getting us onto the roof. Once we were there, we scoped out the tops of all the surrounding buildings and grounds, making sure no one would see us. When we were sure there was no one watching, Mel climbed into my arms and I jumped onto a nearby building. I jumped from building to building, making sure there was no light around us, and then finally, I landed on the ground in an alleyway behind the canteen.

"Woah! That was awesome!" squealed Mel.

"Shh Mel. There might be people around here and we can't have just magically appeared." I replied.

We walked down the dark alleyway, around the corner and into the canteen. Again the noise hit me with unnecessary force and I could hear everyone's conversations all at once, but this time I could hear their thoughts as well. It was awful. I clamped my hands to my ears and bent over double.

'Anni, it's okay. Just block out the thoughts and speech of everyone around you. Lock it in the box you keep at the back of your mind. It'll make it easier for you to hear.' the closest thoughts to me were Mel's. I could sense she was worried for me so I did as she had told me to do and locked all the noise in the back of my mind. It seemed like there was a sieve in the middle though, because I could still hear most of them. The ones that were talking about me. I shut them away too until the only voices I could hear were mine and my friends'.

"Thanks Mel. I owe you one." I said, exhausted.

'No you don't, you've already jumped me to breakfast.' she thought so no one would hear.

"Let's get some food." I said.

"Exactly what I was thinking." she said and we laughed.

We walked over to the breakfast table. There were a million boxes of cereal, a few bowls of assorted fruits, five separate tubs of yoghurt, and an area of hot food and toast. I walked to the cereal first, picked up a bowl and spoon and poured myself a small bowl of Froot Loops because they were my all-time favourite cereal. I then took a piece of toast, spread it with Nuttella and grabbed a sausage and took it all to my table.

"Morning sleepy-heads. You must've been up late to have to sleep through two whole study periods." commented Jesse.

"Ooh. Nice hair Anni." said Lilli and Jessica together.

"How hungry are you Anni? You shouldn't fill up on breakfast. Remember how our days and nights are swapped around? Well that means that dinner is the most important meal of the day. I'm not sure why, but it is. Okay?" said Liam.

"Okay. One at a time. Jesse, yes we were up very late. We had unexpected visitors during the night," I paused as everyone stared at me, "in the form of raccoons. They kept us up all night. Plus, with the sugar rush, we couldn't go to sleep at all. Thank you Lilli and Jessica. You can tell Mel that. She's the one who did my hair. I am starved Liam. The last thing I ate was a block of chocolate. Oh and thanks for the information about the day-night swappy-aroundy thingy."

"Did we miss anything new?" they all asked together.

"Yeah." replied Mel, "Anni can read minds too!"

I was then surrounded by "Well done Anni!" or "Congratulations Anni" all being voiced. The problem was that I could hear everyone's thoughts as well and they forgot that I could read their minds too so while they were cheering on the outside, I could hear the thoughts on the inside 'Oh, I'm so jealous!' or 'Why is she so special?' or 'When I was new, that didn't happen to me.' until I came across a good thought. It was Mel's, 'Don't worry about their thoughts. I can see it on your face. Just concentrate on seeing Cole tonight. Relax. Let all your worries go.' She was so calm and all that calm was rubbing off on me, "Thank you." I mouthed to Mel and she smiled back.

Mel and I walked to music in silence... Well, almost silence. Mel was thinking very loudly, 'You'll love Professor Lynch, Anni. She's an awesome teacher. In fact, I reckon you'll do great in her class because she loves people who play instruments.'

"Umm... Mel, I appreciate what you're saying and all, but it's getting a bit annoying that you can talk to me in your head, but I can't talk back. How about we talk out loud?" I suggested.

"Okay. Sure. Fine with me. Unless we talk about..." she didn't say anymore. Instead, she thought, 'Cole.' and I was hooked.

"Okay. What else is there to tell me?" I asked.

'Umm... Let's plan your outfit for tonight. I think we should ask Liam and Jesse what Cole's favourite colour is and you can wear that on top. You should totally wear those cool black shorts I saw in the second drawer and wear your boots. He'll like that. Though I s'pose you can wear anything coz he already likes you.'

"Hey! We don't know that yet!" I exclaimed.

'Oh whatever. Anyway, so you and Cole can have some alone time, I'll set a concert for tonight in the square. Our group's a hit at school. You can join in too... later. Anyway, it is mandatory that all full-time teachers attend to keep the crowd under control. All the students will attend coz they want to get out of study and it's Saturday tomorrow so everyone can sleep in. Whadda ya think?'

"I think you're a genius and that plan is awesome. Literally." I said and we both laughed.

Mel pulled out some flyers from her shoulder-bag, "Concert tonight. Come see VH's one and only band play tonight in the square!" she yelled as people crowded around us. Mel gave me a stack of flyers and a wink as we both said, "Here, take some for your friends' too." then we both laughed.

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	10. Chapter 8: Our Bond

_Mel pulled out some flyers from her shoulder-bag, "Concert tonight. Come see VH's one and only band play tonight in the square!" she yelled as people crowded around us. Mel gave me a stack of flyers and a wink as we both said, "Here, take some for your friends' too." then we both laughed._

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Chapter Eight – Our Bond

Music and English had zoomed by so fast, I didn't realise it was lunch until Mel tugged me towards the canteen. I had my first lot of homework from my English teacher, Professor Eccles, to complete by Tuesday. I had to write a poem about love. The only problem was that whenever I thought of love, I thought of Cole, and whenever I thought of Cole, I got no work done. I'd have to ask Mel about what to write later. After my training session.

I decided to have a salad wrap after feeling guilty for eating so much sugar at breakfast. I had to rush my lunch as Mel still wanted me to come to our room so she could see what I should wear. She said that she had asked Liam, and Cole's favourite colour was midnight blue. I said I had the perfect top to wear so we rushed back to our room after a hurried explanation to everyone that we had both left our human bio books in our room, which, incidentally, we had.

I rifled around in my closet for a full twenty-five minutes before I found what I was looking for. It was a deep midnight blue halter-neck top with plaited straps. The pattern on it was plain white and silver sparkles to represent stars. I took it and hung it on my closet door, along with my black shorts and my black boots.

"Let's grab our books and go to bio. We'll be late." said Mel.

"We'd never be late with me." I replied.

"True. Let's go though. I think, for me, one time's enough for now."

"Okay. I'm ready now. Let's go."

We walked down the five flights of stairs and out to the garden, "I still think my way would have been faster and less tiresome." I said.

"I s'pose you're right... but at least I feel normal this way." she replied.

"**You** feel normal? What about me with my super advanced abilities?"

'Oh. I s'pose. But then we'd have less time to talk about Cole.'

"You know I hate it when you talk inside my head." I paused, "I've got it! I'll teach you to listen to people's thoughts!"

"Nope. It won't work. Others have tried it and they ended up really badly hurt. Some even died. Or so Walter says. I think it's okay if we do this. You don't talk unless you really have to and I'll talk in your head."

"Okay. If we have to... But I'm laying down some rules. No talking **to** me when we're in class or the teachers will find out and I don't want them to know. You can talk to me without actually talking to me. Just be thinking without the 'you should do this' or anything about Cole." I replied.

'So watcha gonna say to Cole?'

"You really want me to say it out loud?"

"Yep." she replied.

"Well I thought to gain his trust, especially after I threw him into a wall and the teachers saying I was dangerous, I'm going to tell him a secret. I think I'll tell him I can mind-read. If he swears not to tell anyone else."

"Woah Anni. That's a giant step in a relationship. From having a crush to being love. From a cheeseburger to a hamburger with double cheese. From... a bud to a flower."

"Yeah Mel. I get your analogies. But I wouldn't call this _thing_ a relationship. Not unless both parties absolutely feel the same, and I can't be sure about that right now."

"True. Well you'll have to find out tonight then."

"Okay. Trust me. I will."

"I do trust you. Let's go to bio then. We're already five minutes late. It'll take another ten minutes to get there even with a shortcut!"

"How about we run there then?"

"Okay."

"Jump up. I'm heaps faster than you... No offense or anything..."

"No. I get you. Let's go." she said and jumped into my arms.

I sped towards the science lab with Mel's mind guiding the way. I saw exactly where we were going and we were there in a minute and a half.

"Phew. Let's get inside before she yells at us. Who is our teacher by the way?"

"She's Professor H. She doesn't care if we're late. Especially if you're new. When we're out of class, we're allowed to call Professor H. by her first name. Annissa. She's seventeen but she teaches us because she's the top academic student since Albert Einstein. We all love her. She's the best teacher-friend since... Whoever our last teacher-friend was. But remember. She's Professor H."

"Awesome." I whispered as we walked into the science lab.

"Good afternoon Mel and you must be Anni. Good afternoon. Please take any spare seats where you can find them. We're doing the circulatory system today." said Professor H. She then turned to the rest of the class while we were taking our seats and said, "Please leave all your books on the floor. We won't be using them today. We're doing a pop quiz first to find out what you all know. Okay?"

She passed around pop quizzes to everyone and said, "You may begin. It shouldn't take too long."

The quiz looked like this:

* * *

Name: Anni Stoker Date: Friday 19th of June 2009

Question 1: How many chambers does the heart have? Name them.

The heart has 4 chambers. The left atrium, the left ventricle, the right atrium and the right ventricle.

Question 2: Fill in the blanks.

Deoxygenated blood from the body returns to the right atrium.

This blood passes to the right ventricle which pumps the blood to the lungs.

In the lungs, the blood loses its carbon dioxide and picks up oxygen.

The blood then goes to the left atrium and then to the left ventricle.

The left ventriclepumps the oxygenated blood to all parts of the body.

Then the cycle begins again.

Question 3: What are valves for? Where are they located?

Valves in the heart stop blood from flowing the wrong way. They are separating the left atrium and ventricle, and the right atrium and ventricle. They are also at the openings to the major blood vessels from the left ventricle to the aorta and the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery.

End of pop quiz. Please raise your hand when you are finished.

* * *

I raised my hand and Professor H. collected my work to mark at her desk. I was the only one finished and I was confident in my answers so I put my head on my arms and fell asleep. The next moment, I was woken by Mel slapping me on the arm with her eyes really wide, staring at me, "Wake up Anni. Professor H. has marked someone's quiz with a hundred percent score. She tells us the top mark before she hands it back to us so we can compare. Ooh. Look! I got ninety-eight percent!" she said as Professor H. handed Mel her sheet back.

"Here you go Anni. Well done. I need to speak with you after class, if that's okay with you." Annissa said.

"Sure Professor H." I replied.

"Anni! Anni! Look! You got a hundred!" Mel yelled so loud that the whole classroom heard, "Whoops..." she added in a murmur.

Suddenly the box of noise burst in my head. I could hear everything that everyone was saying and thinking again and I closed my eyes and ears as I had done in the canteen. Again, Mel calmed me and put the noise back in its box at the back of my mind. I opened my eyes to see Professor H. staring at me.

'Can I please talk to you after class?' I thought.

'Absolutely. You can come to me for anything Anni. Think of me as a friend rather than a teacher.' she replied.

'Thank you.'

Annissa walked away, back to her desk. "Mel," I whispered, "you need to be there. If everyone starts talking about me again. You're the only one who can calm the noise back into its box. Even I'm not that good."

'Well we'll have to discipline your mind. It will work one day.' she replied.

"No. I don't think that's what it is. I think the vamp-Goddesses have bonded us. When I was still a mortal, I did my research on vampires. They say we have five Goddesses they are: Terra Firma, the Earth element; Zephyr, the Wind element; Deluge, the Water element; Ember, the Fire element; and Zest, the Spirit element. I was reading that if two vampires have a bond, it means that they can borrow each other's emotions when they can mind-read. It is a gift given to only the strongest of vampires from the Goddesses. I think that's what it is Mel! I think the Goddesses gave us a bond!"

"Don't be daft Anni. Why would the Goddesses give us a bond?"

"Think about it realistically Mel. Why would the Goddesses give me this gift?"

"Good point. We have to take it up tomorrow. Right now, there's a whole class around us and... You know?"

"Sure. Tomorrow. Why not tonight?" I asked.

'Cole.' she replied and I didn't pester her again.

After class, I went to see Professor H., "Professor, I'm sorry about what happened in the middle of class today." I apologised.

"Please, call me Annissa. There's no need to apologise Anni. It happened to me the first few times I was talked about in groups. My mind wasn't capable of hearing my name used all at once, so it split and I could hear everything at once. What happened with you and Mel was amazing though. I think you're onto something with the Goddess theory. It makes perfect sense to give such a bond to a smart, strong, young vampire and her best friend. I have no doubt that you could be correct." Annissa paused, turned to the door, and called, "Mel, I know you're there. You can come in too. This is regarding you."

"Sorry for eavesdropping, Annissa. I was just waiting for Anni. So you think Anni might be right about the Goddess theory?"

"Yes. I think it is a very plausible theory. If it is true, I would be willing to help you develop it. You are both top students in human bio and I am confident you can do the tests easily. I think we should experiment with your bond a bit more during class and if you have any trouble, come to me after."

"Thanks Annissa." said Mel.

'Please don't tell anyone Annissa. I trust you, but I don't fully trust the rest of the teachers yet. Please don't tell them.' I pleaded.

'Not a problem Anni. I won't tell anyone else that you can mind-read and no one probes my mind anyway. Be off now. You don't want to miss dinner to be on time to your training session with Cole. Do you?'

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	11. Chapter 9: Cole's Mind

_'Not a problem Anni. I won't tell anyone else that you can mind-read and no one probes my mind anyway. Be off now. You don't want to miss dinner to be on time to your training session with Cole. Do you?'_

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Chapter Nine – Cole's Mind

After dinner, I jumped back to my room, got changed and walked downstairs. It was too early to go to training, but Cole had said be prompt so we could fix the wall, so I walked very slowly to the training room. I was five minutes early, but it was getting cooler outside as it neared dawn, so I stepped inside the warmth of the training room to find Cole there already fixing the dent.

'Oh. Anni's here. Woah. She's wearing midnight blue. That's my favourite colour. It looks really good on her though.' thought Cole and then he sighed in deep thought.

"Hi Anni. I knew you'd come early. It's getting very cold outside so I thought you'd need this place open." said Cole.

"Thanks Coach." I replied, "Can I help with the wall?"

'Yeah. I could do with some help. I need to move the bags of cement from over the other side of the room, to here.' he thought to himself.

"No. I'm pretty much done here. There's nothing you can do." he said.

"Oh really? So why don't I go get the bags of cement and bring them closer to you so we can actually start?" I replied and moved to get the bags of cement.

"No. I'll get them. They're really heavy." he protested.

"Aren't** you** meant to be really heavy?" I asked and walked over, picked up all three bags of cement and carried them over to where Cole was watching helplessly. "Let's get started!" I said enthusiastically, "What do we do?"

"We slit open a bag of cement, mix the cement with some water, grab a trowel and dollop it on the wall. Easy peasy."

"Okay. Let's go."

It took fifteen minutes to finish the job. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the training room now, except Cole. His clothes were drenched in cement because he wanted to show me how slow it dried. It still hadn't dried, so he scraped it off. "See. It dries that slowly." he said triumphantly.

"Yeah. It dries that slowly, but you should go and get changed into some clean clothes before they really dry. It'll hurt. I'll clean up in the meantime and I have to tell you something when you get back. Now go." I ordered and he left thinking, 'Woah. She can be really bossy sometimes.'

"Please!" I yelled after him and he laughed.

When he returned, he was wearing a midnight blue top and scruffy, old jeans with sneakers. I'd cleaned up and the cement on the wall had dried so all that was left was to tell Cole about my psychic powers.

"It's good to see you fixed your heel." he said.

"Yeah. I took your advice. When I got back home, I fixed it straight away." I replied.

"That's right. You said you needed to tell me something?" he asked.

"Yes. But don't tell anyone else. The only people who know about it are my friends and Professor H." I pleaded.

"Okay. I won't. I promise." he swore.

'I can mind-read.' I thought.

'What?!? Since when? That's so cool!' he thought getting excited.

'Since this morning. I'm sorry I read your mind before. That's how I knew to get the cement and why I said please coz you said I sounded really bossy.'

'Oh, it's no big deal. It's not like I thought of anything very important. Thanks for all your help today anyway. You proved really handy in the end. It would've taken me hours to finish that wall by myself. Thank you. And congratulations on your mind-reading.'

'There's more though.' I thought.

'More?' he sounded puzzled.

'Have you heard of the bonds from the Goddesses?' I asked.

'Sure. What about them.' he paused, thinking. I could hear every piece of his mind click together, 'You and Mel have been given a bond?' he asked.

'Yes. Well, Professor H. and I think so. She said it's a very plausible idea. Mel and I are going to work on it in bio.'

'Woah. That's wicked awesome! I wish I had a bond with...' his mind trailed off to distant thoughts of the future, 'no one.' he amended.

"Anyway. Whadda ya think? The wall's all dry now." I patched up for him.

"Yeah. It looks good I s'pose." he was dreaming of **me** and the wall couldn't hold his attention much longer.

'Cole,' I used his name for the first time which snapped him out of his dream, 'do you really think my hair suits me? My ex back at home told me it looked like shit when I had it like this.'

'No. I think it looks beautiful. Just like you.' he answered and tipped my face upwards so I could see his eyes. They were going all wavy and bottomless and my mind went fuzzy. I felt the warmth of his entirety, even though the only thing that touched me was one finger, holding my gaze. It was as if I looked into his eyes and saw straight to his heart. It felt like everything else in the world dropped away. Then he bent and kissed my forehead. 'You'd better get some sleep. We have training first thing tomorrow. After breakfast of course. Take care Anni.' he thought in a whisper accompanied by feelings of love, care, compassion and sincere concern.

'You too Cole.' I whisper-thought back and then he let go that one finger, and I felt like all was lost.

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	12. Chapter 10: Euphoria

_'You'd better get some sleep. We have training first thing tomorrow. After breakfast of course. Take care Anni.' he thought in a whisper accompanied by feelings of love, care, compassion and sincere concern. _

_'You too Cole.' I whisper-thought back and then he let go that one finger, and I felt like all was lost._

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**Chapter Ten – Euphoria**

I walked back to my room slowly and carefully. I felt free in the light drizzle and it helped to cool me down after I felt so hot. Small puddles were forming where the drainage was blocked by leaves and twigs and I felt so elated and carefree that I went around to all the blocked drains in the school and unblocked them. I didn't want it to flood. I didn't feel like I needed much sleep, so I went to the canteen and got myself a cup of hot chocolate. I sat down at my usual table and the whole place was deserted. I pulled out my phone and decided to text Lin. I wrote:

Hi Lin

How r u?

Soz. I've meant 2 call u or sumthin.

We need 2 catch up. R u free now?

I've got sumthin 2 tell u.

Lotsa luv

Anni

xox

I sent the message.

I sat for a while in the quiet little booth, as the sky lightened to reveal the light, fluffy, grey clouds, hanging above us in the sky. They looked like grey puffs of fairy floss, floating like a thin blanket over the Earth. Suddenly my phone buzzed and pulled me out of my happy trance. It was a message from Lin that said:

Hey Anni

I'm gwd.

I know. I meant 2 call u 2 but been really busy.

I'm totally awake. Meet u at the canteen.

Cya soon.

Luv

Lin

xox

Lin arrived three minutes later, completely drenched and panting, "It's raining outside."

"I know." I laughed.

"So you wanted to tell me something?" she asked after she caught her breath.

"Yeah. I'm psychic." I replied.

"Woah! That's awesome, Anni!!!" she said.

"But that's not all..." I continued.

"Oh? More?"

"Yeah, well Annissa and I think that Mel and I may have a bond."

"Oh my gosh! That's amazing!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah! I know!"

Lin yawned, "I think I'd better go to bed. Too much excitement for one night."

"Okay. See ya later then." I replied, yawning myself. Lin walked out of the canteen, waving back at me, and I slumped back in my chair. Even Lin was jealous of me. The only problem was that she wasn't jealous of me having the power. She thought that was awesome. Lin was jealous of the bond. She wanted a bond with me. 'Why does everyone want a bond with me? I mean I'm just some random new kid.' I thought to myself.

'They want a bond with you because you're a great person Anni. You're not a random new person.' replied Cole's thoughts from somewhere close by.

'Thanks, but I didn't mean it like that.' I replied.

'I know. I can read your mind too you know?' he walked into the canteen and sat down opposite me. It hadn't stopped raining. Cole was sopping wet and his hair was cute and hung messily around his perfect face.

"Oh. Yeah. I forgot about that. None of my friends can do it so I forget." I muttered.

Cole took my frozen hands in his surprisingly warm ones and whispered, "Everyone's different. You don't need to worry about them. All you have to worry about is you. Let the rest of the world worry about the rest of the world."

Cole never realised how big an impact on my life those words had. He had touched my heart. He made it feel okay to be a little different to other people; because everyone was different.

"You need to sleep. You've got a big day ahead of you tomorrow." he said, voice full of concern.

"Thanks. I think I will." I said feeling suddenly very sleepy, "Goodnight Cole."

"Night Anni." he replied and I walked outside.

It was beautiful. The rain was very refreshing and I stood stock still in the same spot for about fifteen minutes until I heard Cole's thoughts, 'You'll catch a cold Anni.' and I slowly started to dance back to my room. I jumped up onto the roof. Taking care to flip a couple of times before I actually landed so I had a reason to stay outside for longer. I skipped over to my set of stairs and swiped my key card. Everyone was already in my room. Mel was lying on her bed, absorbed in her music; Liam and Lilli were sharing a beanbag in front of the TV and watching the Notebook. I swear I saw a tear trickling down Liam's face, but he quickly wiped it away. Jesse and Jessica were playing Monopoly on the little rug in the middle of the room. I danced down the stairs, absorbed in myself and myself only, sopping and waterlogged, I grabbed my pyjamas and skipped into the bathroom. I took a rushed shower, threw on my pyjamas and skipped outside.

"You're in a good mood tonight." commented Mel.

I winked back at her and said, "Coach didn't go too hard on me today. We fixed the wall."

"Well if he goes too hard on you, let us know." said Jesse.

"Yeah. We'll give him a butt-whooping if that ever happens." said Liam.

"Thanks guys." I paused for a moment while considering something, "Mel, can I talk to you in private?" I gestured to the wardrobe.

"Sure." she replied and walked with me to the wardrobe.

"I think I need to tell them. About..." I trailed off.

"Are you sure? This is the first step to confirming it as a relationship, you know?"

"Well actually, it's more like the second step." I replied shiftily.

"Later?"

"Sure." I opened the wardrobe door to see everyone staring at us, waiting for an explanation.

"Well?"said Jesse expectantly.

"I may slightly like your brother." I said unconfidently.

"Oh." was all Jesse said.

"Okay." said Liam.

"Oh? Okay?" I replied, "That's it?"

"Well... sure. What else would you expect us to say?"

"I dunno. You just seem so cool about it. It's freaky."

"Thanks."Jesse said sarcastically, "We already knew you liked him though."

"WHAT!?!" Mel and I said together.

"Yeah. Cole said that 'one of your friends likes me' and we figured that it wasn't Mel coz she's interested in Ryan." said Liam.

"Ryan." I repeated.

'Later.' Mel thought and we grinned at each other.

"So what else do you know about Cole and my feelings?" I asked.

"We know nothing, but we have some questions." said Jesse.

"Has he used his eyes?" Liam asked.

"Yes." I said, now more confident that my friends already knew.

"Oh. So it's **that** far already."

"**That** far?" I questioned.

"Yes. It means he likes you back... a lot." replied Jesse.

"Well I already knew that." I said a bit smugly.

"How far has it gone?" asked Lilli and Jessica excitedly.

"Not very." I said a bit too quick.

"Okay. Let's guess." said Lilli to Jessica.

"Exactly what I was thinking twin!" replied Jessica.

"Have you mind-talked yet?" asked Lilli.

"Yes. A lot." I said.

"Does he know about your bond?" asked Jessica.

"Yes."I said sighing.

"Why so sad Anni?" asked Liam.

"Well I caught up with Lin before and I told her about the psychic-ness and the bond and she was really jealous about the bond." I trailed off, reminiscing.

"And what has that got to do with Cole?" prompted Mel.

"Well. He was jealous too. He thought, 'I wish I had a bond with... no one...' but he also thought my name all the way through it." I sighed again.

'Don't sigh Anni. Remember. You are you and nothing can change the fates.' I heard a familiar voice coming from the roof. I stood up half way through Jesse's sentence and he stopped, apparently realising that I wasn't paying attention to him anymore. "What is it Anni?" asked Mel.

"I just realised that I left my backpack on the roof. It must be sopping wet. I'll be back in a minute." I made up.

'If Cole's up there, slam the door on your way out. I'll keep us down here for you.' said Mel.

"Thank you." I mouthed back to her.

I ran up the stairs to the little door, swiped my card to get out and slammed the door behind me. The rain pelted down really heavily and I laughed hysterically but my laughter was carried away with the wind.

'Where are you?' I asked.

'Come out from the stairwell.' he replied. I walked up the stairs and into the rain. It was perfect. The rain made it so neither of us could speak, making it impossible for anyone to overhear us. I spotted Cole on the other side of the building. I walked over to him.

'Hi Cole.' I grinned.

'Hello Anni. I've heard you talking about me.' he said.

My stomach plummeted, 'Oh. Umm... I didn't mean anything I said. I don't think.'

'Oh. So what would you say if I did this?' he asked and bent down to kiss me full on the lips. We stood there, me on my toes and him bent over me, for what felt like a full ten minutes before we broke apart, gasping for air.

There was an awkward moment of silence when Cole said, 'Oh, would you look at the time. It's getting really late. See ya tomorrow Anni.' and he jumped off the building

'By the way,' I said, 'I would have said I love you.' And before I knew it, Cole was back on the roof and kissing me again.

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	13. Chapter 11: Cole's Bond

__

There was an awkward moment of silence when Cole said, 'Oh, would you look at the time. It's getting really late. See ya tomorrow Anni.' and he jumped off the building

_'By the way,' I said, 'I would have said I love you.' And before I knew it, Cole was back on the roof and kissing me again._

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Chapter Eleven – Cole's Bond

I traipsed down the stairs, feeling light-hearted and light-headed. All the kissing had made me dizzy and I stumbled and tripped over a few times before reaching my friends at the bottom of the stairs.

"I didn't leave my bag outside in the end. I think I need a shower and sleep." I said to the expectant faces as I walked into the bathroom, picking up a new pair of pyjamas on my way. I took a long shower, making sure every muscle in my body was relaxed after the intimate moment between Cole and I. When I came out, my friends were still all staring at me, "Guys, I really need to go to sleep. I have training tomorrow morning." I said.

"Cole was up there, wasn't he?" asked Liam and Jesse simultaneously. It was more of a statement.

"No!" I replied getting flustered.

"So he **was** up there!" said Jessica and Lilli enthusiastically.

"Give it a rest guys. Let her sleep. We'll harass her in the morning. Kay?" said Mel hopefully, then added to me, 'I'm only giving it a rest until they go though.' with a wink.

"Sure." they all said, "See ya Anni and Mel."

"Bye." we giggled. Everyone left and there was only Mel and I left, in the room anyway. I could still hear Cole thoughts from outside the window. It had stopped raining but it was three a.m. and I didn't want him catching a cold because of me so I thought, 'Cole, you'll catch a cold and get sick. Go to bed. You'll need all the rest you can get for tomorrow's training session.'

'I can't feel the cold Anni. Haven't you had...? Oh. You're still a baby. Sorry. I forgot. You're just so mature for your age. Okay. I'll go get some sleep. I'm sure I'll need all of my energy for tomorrow. Good night Anni. Don't talk about me **too** much.' said Cole with a mind-blow-kiss.

'Night Cole.' I replied and sighed out loud.

"You were talking to Cole?" asked Mel.

"Yeah." I said breathlessly.

"Well that's great Anni. Now, tell me everything!" she almost squealed in her excitement. I was actually glad Cole had taken my advice and gone to bed. It would have been weird to talk about him when he was right outside my bedroom window.

"Okay. So after training, I told him I could mind-read and he was all shocked and happy for me and stuff, and then I told him about the bond and he became all dreamy and he was wondering what a bond with me would be like. After that, I actually called him **Cole** and he used his eyes and kissed me on the forehead and told me to go to bed." I paused to breathe, "So I was sitting in the canteen and I texted Lin to come meet me. I told her about my mind-reading and she was fine with it, until I told her about the bond. She got really jealous, so she left. Then, I seriously doubted myself. Until Cole thought some really powerful words to me and sent me to bed. I stood in the rain for ages until he told me to go to bed again. This time, I actually did. So you're up to date to then." I paused.

"Woah Anni! That's so awesome! So I understand how your relationship isn't in the first stage. Kissing on the forehead and worrying about each other is the third step already."

"Well. I may be more than that too." I replied shiftily.

"Ooh! What happened on the roof? And just before too?" she bounced on her bed.

"So I heard Cole talking to me while Jesse was talking and that's why I went to the roof. Anyway, Cole said he'd overheard me talking about him, and I said I didn't mean any of it..." I trailed off blushing, "He asked me what I would say if he did something... and then he kissed me. Like **on the lips**! And then it was all weird coz we didn't know what to say, and he jumped away..." I trailed off again turning bright red.

"Then what happened?" asked Mel impatiently.

"Then I said, I would have said that I loved him, and he came back and kissed me again." I flopped back on my bed and twisted so I could see Mel's reaction. It was a mixture of excitement and awe.

"So what was with the mind things when everyone was leaving?" she asked.

"I told him not to catch a cold and to go to bed coz he'd need all his energy for tomorrow; and he agreed and said not to talk about him too much. Then he said goodnight and blew me a kiss... through the mind, that is." I curled up under my doona.

"Awww... Anni! That is sooo sweet! You and Cole are made for each other! And you're right. Technically you skipped the first date step so you're up to stage seven... first kiss. I sooo envy you!" Mel sat up to see my face better.

"Mmhmm... you and Ryan? Explain." I commanded.

"Ryan is sixteen. He has a brother, Kyle, who's seventeen. There was a weird complication with their turning. Apparently, Ryan accidentally walked in on Kyle being turned, so Ryan had to be turned as well. Ryan was only fourteen at the time, but he's really smart to make up for it. I met Ryan in the canteen once. I was new and I'd just been rained on really hard. It was horrible. Anyway, I stumbled into the canteen and it was totally deserted, or so I thought. I walked to a table and sat down. I was shivering really badly and my teeth were chattering, when Ryan came up to me and gave me a hot chocolate. He was really sweet. We sat and talked a bit, until it was getting late, so we walked back to the dorms together and then went our separate ways. I've only seen him once other than that time. It was at one of our concerts. He was standing in the crowd and when I saw him, he grinned and winked at me. It was really flustering because I was halfway through the song and I started to lose it. I mean, he made me forget my place and it was only when I heard Liam playing the tune on the piano that I remembered where I was. I looked down again and he'd disappeared. I was so disappointed, but I s'pose it didn't really matter. Anyway, I don't have a chance with him. He's got flocks of girls around him 24/7!" she explained.

Meanwhile, I'd been trying to sneak a word in and finding it very difficult, "Did you take a breath at all while you were speaking?"

"Of course I did!" she panted, and we laughed.

"So this Ryan guy sounds nice. D'you want some help persuading him to talk to you? If you're scared or whatever, I can help. I think our bond works both ways. Have you been experiencing mood swings or uncanny powers, like predicting what someone is going to say?" I asked hopefully.

"Well, now that you mention it, I semi-knew you were going to say that; and about half an hour before you got back from the canteen, I was feeling really happy. Ecstatic almost. I was so overcome by it that I even wore yellow pyjamas!" she indicated her pyjamas.

"Go to sleep! When I got my psychic-ness, I slept, and then took a shower. Maybe that'll work for you too!" I was really excited.

"Okay. It's worth a try. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? I don't get psychic powers. That's not new." she said wriggling into bed.

"Night Mel." I said and flicked off my purple lava-lamp.

"Night Anni." she said and turned on her iPod-alarm.

* * *

I was awoken by the sweet sound of Mel's mother's songs. I sat up and walked to the wardrobe. My timetables were pinned up beside each other on the mirror. I had training with Cole first.

I rapped on the bathroom door and Mel stepped out, "I knew you were there. Of course I'll help you decide what to wear." she said.

"You can mind-read?" I asked excitedly.

"Yeah. But I'm not sure if I can just mind-read you or if I can do it to everyone else. Wanna test it at breakfast?" she questioned.

"Sure. So what should I wear?"

"Wear something comfortable. You don't need to dress up anymore." she said, reading my mind.

"Exactly what I was thinking!" we laughed. I changed into my daggy jeans and a plain black t-shirt and we walked to breakfast.

"So is it time to harass Anni yet?" chorused our table of friends.

'Are you going to tell them 'bout your mind-reading?' I asked.

'Yep. I can read their minds, might as well tell them.' she replied.

"Umm... guys... I have something to tell you." Mel said to everyone.

"It's really important!" I yelled at everyone to get their attention.

"Okay! Okay!" they screamed back at me.

"I'm psychic!" whispered Mel excitedly.

"Woah! That's awesome!" replied everyone; except Lilli.

"How can you do it?" Lilli asked, "I mean, first Anni; then you?"

"We... may have a bond." I whispered.

"Yeah. Annissa's going to help us train it." continued Mel.

"Really? How come you never told us that?" asked Jesse.

"We were a bit preoccupied in... other business." I said.

"Oh! Right! We were meant to be getting dirt off Anni!" exclaimed Jessica.

"We should probably let them go to meet Annissa." said Liam.

"Or let **Anni** get to her morning training with **Cole**." continued Jesse, elbowing me and hi-fiving his brother.

"Oh shit! I almost forgot!" I yelled jumping up and sending Froot Loops flying in every direction.

'It's okay Anni. Finish your breakfast, or what's left of it, and I'll meet you at the training room.' said Cole, 'Congratulations on the mind-reading Mel.' he added and Mel and I smiled at each other.

"I'll just finish my breakfast. I don't think Cole will mind." I said.

"Cole's a stickler for being punctual." said Jesse.

"Yeah. You should really go." said Lilli, "He told off a newbie for being exactly forty-three seconds late. He ran out of the room crying."

Even after these harsh words, I didn't budge. Everyone, but Mel, looked suspiciously at me and then at Mel. 'You should tell them. They're going to find out sooner or later.' Mel suggested.

'She's right, you know.' Cole agreed.

'Oh okay. If I have your consent.' I said to both of them.

'Sure.' they said together.

"Okay guys. Mel, Cole and I have been having a conversation while you were staring... and before when I spilt my Froot Loops." I admitted.

"Can you tell him to get in here?"asked Jesse teasingly angry.

'Your brothers want to see you.' Mel and I said in unison to Cole.

'Okay. Be right there.' he said, coming towards us. Crowds of people parted for him where he walked. It was as if he were walking down the aisle.

"Yo little bros!" he said as he approached us and ruffled their hair.

"Oi! You may be our big brother, but you have no right to treat us as babies!" said Jesse.

"Sure sure Jez." he smirked, "How have you all been? Last time I saw y'all out of class was... two months ago!"

"We're good." said Lilli while Jessica nodded.

Mel shook her head, "You know 'bout me already."

Cole sat down next to me, "And what about you?" he murmured into my ear.

I was busy shovelling Froot Loops down my throat that I just thought, 'Well, you know how I'm feeling. How are you?'

"I'm good. Thanks for asking." he said as everyone but Mel and I stuttered.

I swallowed my food, chasing it down with chocolate milk and a tic-tac and said, "Are you sure you didn't catch a cold? You were in the rain and cold for hours this morning!" my voice full of concern.

"I'm fine Anni. Don't worry about me. When you learn about this stuff in the afternoon with Professor Layton, you'll understand me. You have extra vamp history." he replied.

"Explain?" asked the pair of twins.

"I'm leaving that up to you. You can explain it better to them. Catch up later." I said to Cole.

"Sure. I'll fill them in. Bye Mel. See ya soon Anni. Ten minutes!" he called after me as I pulled Mel out of her chair.

"Let's listen in!" I said to Mel.

"Okay!" Mel replied excitedly. We were wandering aimlessly in the square and found the stage still set up from last night, so we sat on it, dangling our feet over the edge.

'... what do you want to know?' Cole asked.

'What happened last night?' Liam asked.

'Nothing much.' Cole replied.

'How far has it gone? Stage three?' asked Lilli.

'Umm... stage... seven?' he replied hesitantly.

'Oh my gosh! Seven **already**?!? What happened to two, three, four, five and six?' screamed Lilli.

'And when did stage seven happen bro?' asked Jesse.

'Last night...' he muttered, only slightly audible.

'WHAT!?! Last night? You've known her for two days! As Anni's friend, I must protect her from... you and other people looking out for... someone like her!' said Liam boldly.

'And as Anni's boyfriend, I think you have nothing to worry about little bro. You know me. Anyway, what's the worst thing that could happen to her with me?' Cole said proudly.

'Umm... I can think of at least ten.' replied Liam.

'And I can think of another ten.' said Jesse.

'Well you have **our** blessing... We can count for your extremely **rude** brothers.' said Jessica with Lilli nodding her approval simultaneously.

'Thanks guys, but I don't need your blessings. And Anni's really grateful to know she has such protective, caring friends.' Cole chuckled, 'I'd better get on. She and Mel are in the square. See ya later bros, Lil and Jess.'

'See ya Cole. Tell Anni not to kill you too hard.' Jesse yelled after him.

"That was exciting Anni!" yelled Mel.

"I know." I replied, "Breathtaking."

"You have a boyfriend!"

"I know! Weird huh!"

"What do you mean Anni? You're the most popular girl in the school! Of course you'd get a boyfriend!"

"Nah! I meant it was weird that I didn't know he was my boyfriend until Cole bluntly said it to his brothers."

"You didn't realise? He **kissed** you for God's sake! How could you not realise?"

"Preoccupied?"

"With what?"

"Thinking about me, obviously!" said Cole, cutting across the square to come towards Mel and I.

Mel and I stood there laughing as Cole fast-walked to us.

"Should we start training? We need to go to the training room." I said when we stopped laughing.

"Sure. You two go ahead. I'll just stay here." said Mel when we turned to face her.

"No Mel. You should come with us. Your bond works both ways, and maybe you'll get super-strength too." suggested Cole.

"Yeah Mel! You should come too! It'll be sooo much fun!" I yelled.

"Alright then. But only if I'm not interrupting something." she eyed us suspiciously.

"Nothing whatsoever." assured Cole, eyeing my longingly.

"You know what? I think I'll go find Annissa and tell her what's happened."

"O-okay Mel. See ya in bio. We have music after, right?" I asked.

"Yep." she grinned at me, "See ya Cole."

"Bye Mel." he smiled.

Mel walked towards Annissa's room and Cole and I turned and walked towards the training room. "Wanna race?" he teased.

"Okay." I agreed throwing him off.

"Okay. Ready... Set... GO!" he yelled and we took off. People all around us were drenched in water as we ran through puddles. In the end though, I won. Cole was panting really hard. He bent over double and ran head-first into the corner of the wall. Luckily he braced himself and slowed down so he didn't damage the wall. Instead, he was knocked out for a full five minutes. When he recovered, I had carried him to the little platform and laid him on his side so he didn't choke on his tongue. I was sitting, worriedly holding his hand and stroking his head. He sat up abruptly and immediately felt dizzy.

"You should lie down. You've been knocked out for five minutes, Cole." I said but he ignored me and stood up, wobbling a bit, but steadying himself and wheeling around to face me. His face was pale and angelic. It looked as if he was glowing, although that was probably just the light from outside.

"Thank you for doing that. The nurses-wing isn't very... appealing... to me." he said suspiciously. He realised that he'd sounded suspicious so he flashed me a quick grin before he swept me off my feet and literally **FLEW **to one of the beams supporting the roof.

"You can **FLY**!!!" I squealed.

"Yes." he replied coolly, "You haven't learnt two things. These are your sixth-sense and flying. They are essential for transforming from a teenager to an adult."

"Cool. I totally wanna fly!" I said, "What's a sixth-sense?"

"It's when you get a tie with an element. It is as if the element has a bond with you. Rarely, vamps get special connections with one of the five goddesses. Only two vamps in history have had these 'correlations' who are now the Goddess of Light, Lutecia, and Goddess of Darkness, Lilith. They were twins. Their father died when they were young. Where Lutecia moved on, Lilith blamed her sister. Since then, Lutecia has been shadowed." he replied thoughtfully.

"Do you think I could have a correlation with a goddess when I'm older?" I asked.

"You will most definitely have one. I'm not absolutely certain, but you seem to be gifted by the goddesses with a bond to your best friend," again longing flared up inside him, "so why would the goddesses give you something so special if they weren't going to give you anything else? Why you?"

"That's my question. I'm not special. I'm just a random baby vampire. I mean, Lilith and Lutecia were alive three centuries ago! I can't be connected to them in any way, shape or form. It has to be some weird malfunction in me." I replied.

"That's not what I meant Anni. I meant why would they only give you one thing and not the other? Lutecia and Lilith both had correlations. They also developed their vamp-abilities earlier than everyone else. They were in their first year of childhood."

"Really? That's amazing."

"Not as amazing as you though." he said, his voice saturated in adoration. I looked up to study his face. It was as beautiful as I'd remembered. He was beautiful. His eyes went wavy and I leant upwards for my kiss, and just as I got there... Walter walked in.

It took him a moment to realise we were above him, and in his moment of hesitation, Cole and I broke apart and swung so we were hanging onto the beam with our bare hands.

"Nice work Anni." yelled Walter from below us, "Come down here a moment so I can talk to you."

I let go and landed neatly on my feet, directly in front of Walter.

"Good morning sir." I said as Cole landed neatly beside me.

"Good morning Anni, Cole." he replied, "How has your training been? Any more accidents?"

"No sir. None at all." I replied.

"Well that's good. We don't want any **more** broken bones." he chuckled while I threw a confused glance at Cole.

"What can I do for you sir?" I asked.

"I was just wondering what powers you have fully developed at the moment." he said completely business-like.

"I can mind-read, have super strength and speed, and I have developed a bond with Mel." I replied confident.

"Really? A bond? We'll have to put you in special classes to develop the bond." he replied making some notes in his book.

"No sir. Professor H. has kindly offered biology as a slot for us to practice. If that's okay."

"Sure. That would be no trouble." he scratched out the marks he had previously written in his book, "You should get back to training. Good luck."

"Thank you sir." I said and turned to Cole as Walter walked out of the room.

"Close call." he muttered.

"Very." I replied, "So what's this about broken bones?"

"Well, the day you threw me into the wall, I broke three ribs and fractured my shoulder."

"WHAT!?!" I replied horrified, "Why didn't you tell me? I would have taken you to the nurses-wing. Oh. You had bad experiences." I paused, "How could you not look in pain or anything then?" I asked.

"Well, as we are vampires, whether we are babies or adults, we can heal really fast. So when you threw me into the wall, my fractures mended instantly and my ribs healed in another two minutes."

"Woah! That's amazing!" I said.

"Yeah. Pretty amazing." he replied, "You should probably get going to bio."

"I suppose." I replied, "What times do you have off? I mean, I know you teach and study too, but are you free at lunch or recess or something?"

"Sure Anni. I'll see you at lunch." he replied as a massive crowd of students burst into the training room, chattering like mad. Immediately, the little box inside my head burst open and I fell to the floor.

'It's okay Anni. Put the noise away. Stay calm and put it in your box.' Cole's soothing thoughts broke through the stream of noise and I obeyed them. His calmness rubbed off on me and he helped me to my feet. In that instant, we both realised that we had created a bond. For a moment, excitement burned in him and me and we smiled at each other. Then, the class brought us back to our senses and we snapped out of our dream.

"Class, start your basic stretches and I'll be out in a minute." Cole said and motioned for me to come with him. I hadn't noticed before, but there was a door on the left side of the training room. This was Cole's office. Cole opened the door for me and we stepped inside the office together.

"Thank you for saving me. I figured that if the noise got to be too intense for me, my box would burst and I'd never be able to live around people again." I said.

"Oh. No probs." he said. We were both talking in a trance. Our voices felt like they weren't our own.

"What do we do Cole?" I asked getting anxious.

"I'm not sure Anni. I think we need to talk to Annissa and Mel and see what they think." he said, my anxiety rubbing off on him.

"Could we leave the class doing stretches and see Annissa now. I have bio." I suggested.

"Yeah. Let's go." he swept me off my feet and flew out the open window. We reached biology in no time and Cole knocked on the door.

'I need to speak to you and Mel please.' Cole thought to Annissa.

"Class, please start your experiment." Annissa said to the class. Mel and Annissa walked to the door and came out without any of the class knowing what was going on.

"This better be important." Annissa said.

"It's extremely important." I replied shakily.

"What's the matter Anni?" she asked, sensing my anxiety.

"It's... it's... not bad... I don't think... slightly bad... don't know what to do." I said zoned out.

'Anni, pull yourself together. It'll be okay. Just breathe.' Cole soothed me. I became totally calm. In fact, I was so calm that I collapsed on the floor.

"Do you need to go to the nurse Anni?" Annissa said full of concern.

"No. I don't like the nurse. I've had bad experiences." I said.

"Mel. Please do something. You and Anni have a bond. Get her to use some of your strength." Annissa told Mel.

"I've been trying since I got out here, but there's a more powerful emotion blocking it. Someone's protecting Anni's mind." Mel said. I turned to Cole and nodded to say it was okay to let Mel into my mind. Immediately, I became very alert. I stood up and leant on the wall in case I collapsed again.

"Sorry Mel." Cole said softly.

"You?" Annissa said confused, "How could you protect Anni's mind. You'd have to have a bond with her to be able to protect her mind."

"Yeah. I know." said Cole

"Oh my gosh! You two have a bond too, don't you!" Mel squealed.

"Well..." Cole started.

"Yeah. We do. It sorta... happened." I said, "If Cole didn't help me with my noise box, I would be brain scrambled."

"Well, this can't be good can it?" Annissa said, "I mean, a teacher and a student."

"We're sorta..." I started.

"Oh. Okay. I see." Annissa said before I could continue, "Well it's a good thing then. Except that means that I'm going to have to ask Walter for some time with you and Mel which suits Cole as well."

"Any time suits me fine. Just not during class, obviously." Cole said, "Or training times. Anni still needs training."

"Sure. How about Thursday afternoons? I could tell Walter you said it was okay for me to take over your training spot with Anni as this is very important."

"Sure. I have to get back to my class now. Bye." Cole said and he sped away.

"Bye." I echoed.

"Let's get started with your training shall we?" Annissa said as a shiny black motorbike zoomed up to our classroom and stopped right in front of us.

**Love it? Hate it? Unfortunately, I'm not a vampire, therefore I can't read your minds... Reviews?!?**


	14. Chapter 12: The One Touched By Darkness

_"Let's get started with your training shall we?" Annissa said as a shiny black motorbike zoomed up to our classroom and stopped right in front of us._

* * *

**Chapter Twelve – The Newbies & The One Touched By Darkness**

"Anni?" asked a distantly familiar voice.

"Could it really be?" I asked no one in particular.

"It's me! Candii!" she replied removing her helmet and letting her short, black hair fling out in an untidy fashion, which surprisingly suited her well.

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe it!" I squealed.

"Me either!" she matched my squeal exactly.

"Oh." I said, "Mel, this is Candii. She's been my friend since forever!"

"Hi Candii." Mel said sweetly, but I felt jealousy burn inside her, "It's nice to meet you."

"You too Mel." Candii said.

"Did you bring Clair?" I asked Candii to break the tension that was gradually building around me.

"There were some... complications... but I got her here in the end." she replied hesitantly.

"Complications?" I questioned.

"In order for Clair to be able to come with me, she had to be turned too." Candii muttered.

"WHAT?!? Aren't there side-effects or something?" I asked.

"Yeah... side-effects..." she sounded sad.

"Wasn't she completely devoted to chicken bones the last time I saw her?" I asked.

"Well, now she's devoted to muffins. English muffins, breakfast muffins, chocolate-chip muffins, strawberry muffins... any kind of muffin! Her favourite is muffins with chicken bones in it. I call it the Clair muffin." she said.

"Oh well. Muffins. I s'pose it's okay. They make muffins twenty-four seven here." I said trying to cheer her up.

"There's something else though." she sounded worried.

"Whatever it is, you can tell us." I said, indicating Mel, Annissa and I.

"Well, I have a bond with her." she murmured.

"How'd that happen?" I asked.

"I don't know. It's probably because we have been so close lately. After she lost her baby sister. We'd even named her."

"Can I see Clair?" I asked, sensing her discomfort with the subject.

"Sure." Candii walked over to a small basket strapped to the back of her motorbike and opened the lid. I could sense Mel and Annissa's confusion and decided to tell them what they missed, "Just in case it wasn't clear, Clair is a dog."

"Oh. That makes sense. With the basket." Mel murmured.

"And you have a bond with your dog?" asked Annissa.

"Yes." Candii said, coaxing Clair out of the basket.

Suddenly, a little black nose poked out of the basket. It was followed by a tiny black body with little light-brown patches in random places on her body. Finally, Clair had emerged from the little basket. She was so adorable and just as I had remembered. The little yorkshire terrier sniffed the air as if sniffing out who was around, because immediately after she sensed it was safe, Clair jumped out of Candii's arms and into mine.

'Hi Anni. It's great that I can finally talk to you. It's really hard to communicate without words.' Clair thought.

'I can only imagine.' I replied.

"Well I should get back inside. Do you want to show Candii and Clair around and skip bio today?" Annissa asked Mel and I.

"Sure. Mel?" I replied.

"Absolutely!" she said. Anything to keep an eye on me and Candii. Mel felt suspicious and I decided to let her air. I walked with Clair, talking to her, and forcing Mel and Candii to walk together. Mel was pointing out buildings to their left and right, while Candii nodded at appropriate moments. It seemed very robotic and I couldn't stand my best friend not getting along with my childhood friend, so I took Candii and Clair to the canteen and told them to sit at our table and eat something while I grabbed Mel by the arm and whisked her into the bathroom.

"I know you're jealous Mel. Why?" I spoke in hushed tones.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she started to speak, "Two years ago, my best friend introduced me to his childhood friend. He wanted me to become her friend too. So I did, and when I had fully let her into my life, she humiliated me in front of everyone. She told Ryan's friends that **she** liked Ryan and Ryan dated her for a while. Until she humiliated Ryan." Mel let out a mangled sob, composed herself as though tears weren't leaking rapidly from her eyes, and started whispering again, "Her name was Aliss and my best friend Kris had told me she was his oldest childhood friend. If you haven't already heard, Aliss and Kris were secretly dating for about four or five years before running off. They haven't been seen since, but on the day they left, they yelled curses at the school and then they actually **cursed** the school. No one knows who it'll strike, but apparently, you feel very weak, and eventually, you became fatally ill and would fall into what people call 'a sleep for a thousand souls' because that's what Kris had been studying. Curses. Him and Aliss were both evil. I can't believe I fell for his stupid tricks. He was my best friend! And Aliss was great too. I should never have let them into my life!" Mel's voice had been slowly rising to the point where she was shrieking at me now. She took some deep breaths to try to calm herself. 'Why am I getting so worked up over **him** and Aliss? It's been almost three months!' she was thinking to herself.

"It's because you loved them Mel. You still do. In a friends kinda way." I added when I saw her disgusted look at me mentioning her ever loving, let alone liking them.

"I su-su-suppose." she stuttered between irregular breaths, "But you get why I'm a bit..."

"Jealous? That's the only thing I felt coming from you today." I completed for her.

"Well I am jealous. Who wouldn't be? I mean, what if you decided to replace me, your best friend, for her, your childhood friend?"

"It's never gonna happen." I said sure of myself.

"Why not?" she asked curiously.

"Well, Candii and I met in pre-school. We became instant friends and by grade five, we were joined at the hip. In grade nine though, we both coincidentally fell head-over-heels in love with this guy. His name was Timothy and he was the class hottie. One day, I came into class after the weekend and I had brought a whole bunch of cookies to school that I had made. I thought I would give Timothy this cookie with a note explaining how much I liked him, at the beginning of the day. I walked up to him and gave him the things. He nodded and I scurried off. I hid in a corner and watched him. He seemed to sadden when he read the note, but he ate the cookie. Later that day, I saw Candii standing in front of him in her mini dress, twirling her hair around her finger. Timothy pointed out to her that I was in the corner and she came over to me, gushing about how Timothy had asked her out on a date. I checked my mobile that afternoon and there was a text message from Timothy saying that he just wanted to be friends. A-and he th-thanked me f-for the co-cookie." I burst into tears, "It was my first ever real rejection and what was worse was that I knew he had rejected me for Candii."

"Oh Anni. You poor thing! It must have been a million times worse for you." Mel said, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes as well.

"Oh sure, the guy I liked for a while rejects me. Compared to your best friend taking his girlfriend and turning evil. Absolutely!" I chuckled.

"I see what you mean. But you and Candii are... okay now?" she asked unsure of herself.

"Oh. Yeah we're fine." I said sarcastically, "After that date, Candii hung around Timothy too much to ever think of little Anni sitting in the corner with her old bunch of friends in the canteen. What's really stupid is that she never realised that throughout the whole time that she and Timothy were going out, Timothy had been cheating on her with another girl. They were dating for two years and she had never realised. When the whole thing came out, Candii came running back to our group, and I was turned vamp."

"Wow. So you really aren't going to run off and be evil with her?" Mel asked jokingly.

"Absolutely no chance. There is nothing for you to be jealous about. **You're** my best friend. Not her." I smiled at Mel and she grinned back.

Suddenly, we heard a small cough and we spun around. There was a girl emerging from the shadows of the bathroom who we hadn't noticed when we had entered.

"I'm sorry. We didn't see you there." I said to the girl, "My name's Anni and this is Mel. Who're you?"

"I'm Laura." replied a mystical, kind of dazed, trance-like voice, "It's okay. I can come and go as I please tonight. It is, after all, a new moon. New beginnings for everyone. I'm sorry to have heard your conversation."

"Oh it's alright." Mel piped up, "I'm sure you don't care what our ramblings are about anyway."

"Well, I do care actually. See, I don't have many friends, and it's kinda hard for me to find anyone who isn't repulsed by what I can do."

"What can you do?" we asked.

"Every new moon, I can blend in with the shadows. It just so happens that we are awake during the night, which helps me even more. As there is a new moon, everything is bathed in a pitch-blackness which I can blend in with. The thing is, my powers only work at the night time in really dark places, or on a new moon." Laura said mystically. Mel and I were gaping at her. All the pieces clicked in our heads at the same time.

"Do you have a correlation with Lilith?" I asked in awe and fear.

"Yes. It's a bit of a hassle if you ask me." Laura realised that Mel and I had gone back into our shocked positions, "I understand if you think I'm a freak or something. No one has ever had a recorded correlation with Lilith before."

"No no. Of course we don't think you're a freak. I can mind-read and Anni was turned a few days ago, but she has the powers and strength of a teenager. Plus, we have a bond. Well, Anni has two bonds, but... yeah." Mel said.

"Really?" Laura said, stepping out from the shadows now to reveal herself. She had wavy, dirty blonde, waist length hair and was average height, a little bit shorter than myself and Mel.

"Absolutely." I replied. I glanced down at my watch. "Shit!" I exclaimed.

"What's the matter?" Laura said after she and Mel both jumped five meters into the air.

"Mel and I are late for English, and we've left Candii and Clair in the canteen for forty-five minutes." I explained.

"Oh. Sure. Umm... I think this might be a bit weird, but I'm meant to have a girl and a dog named Candii and Clair come as my roommates. They were meant to arrive today. I was supposed to pick her up, but they weren't at their house when Professor Walter and I went this afternoon."

"It's because they came by motorbike." Mel explained.

"Do you guys want to introduce me to them? I can take them off your hands while you go to English. I have a study period next, so I'm free to show them around more." Laura suggested.

"Absolutely." Mel and I exclaimed together as all of us walked out of the bathroom and into the canteen feeling restored. It was just as Laura had said. New moons were the start of new things. For starters, a new friendship, a new boyfriend and a new bond. Plus a new beginning in my life. As a vamp.

**I'd like to thank all the pplz who've taken the time to read and review my story. To the others who have just READ my story, please review it.**


	15. Chapter 13: London Pride

_"Do you guys want to introduce me to them? I can take them off your hands while you go to English. I have a study period next, so I'm free to show them around more." Laura suggested._

_"Absolutely." Mel and I exclaimed together as all of us walked out of the bathroom and into the canteen feeling restored. It was just as Laura had said. New moons were the start of new things. For starters, a new friendship, a new boyfriend and a new bond. Plus a new beginning in my life. As a vamp._

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**Chapter Thirteen – London Pride**

"I forgot to write a poem!" I exclaimed in horror to Mel as we ran to English.

"It's okay. We can write it now." Mel replied calmly. We sat down on a brick half-wall and I took out my notepad and pen.

"What is it about?" Mel asked.

"Love," I sighed.

"Ah. I see." Mel paused, rethinking what she saw, "Actually Anni, I don't see. Why do you need **my** help? You're the one with the boyfriend and claiming to be in love."

"Well, I'm not very good with expressing my feelings and putting them into words." I muttered.

"Why don't you brainstorm? Make a list of things you think love is." Mel suggested.

"Okay. Good idea. Let's see." I said.

I wrote:

Love is...

Happiness

Sadness

Heartbreaks

Chocolates

Pain

Promises

Fights

Breakups

Relationships

BF/GF

Cole

I gave the list to Mel to check over. She looked slightly concerned at a few items, but chuckled at others. "What is it? What's so funny?" I asked.

"Well, you can't put Cole in your poem, can you?" she sniggered.

"I suppose not." I said downcast.

"Let's start writing." Mel said.

"Sure." I replied.

It took fifteen minutes until we finally came up with a reasonably okay copy of the poem. It read:

What is love?

Love is stepping

Into the rain.

Happiness and sadness

With promises and pain.

If you've never

Fallen in love,

I'm sure it came from

Heaven above.

Taking this in

This must mean,

I'm in love

That's what it seems.

We read it and re-read it until we were finally satisfied with it. I loved it, but not more than Cole. I glanced at my watch. We had taken half an hour to settle Candii in and write this poem. We only had half an hour left of English. When Mel and I walked into English and took our seats at the back of the classroom, Professor Eccles spun abruptly on the spot to fix us with a beady glare. Mel and I thought repeatedly of how we had taken Candii around and Professor Eccles's stern gaze twisted into a forgiving smile. She seemed almost nice; until she called me to the front of the class to read out my love poem.

I turned to Mel. She shrugged at me meaning, well it's good we did it then, isn't it. I almost laughed out loud, but I controlled my hysterics enough to glare at Mel, who was silently chuckling in the corner. I got up and made a bee-line directly for the front of the class, avoiding all the stares I was getting from my friends. When I was at the front, Professor Eccles nodded for me to begin and I read my poem to the class. I could sense that she was expecting me to come up with an excuse that I hadn't done it or read out a really bad poem, which would have meant I did it in two seconds, rather than thinking about it. When I had read my poem, I turned to Professor Eccles. She wore a shocked expression upon her face. I gave her a smug, told-ya-so look and swept back to my seat. I looked around the class. I saw everyone staring at me with the same look as Professor Eccles.

'Why is everyone staring at me Mel?' I thought to her, putting up a barrier around our conversation so people couldn't eavesdrop.

'You read out a really good poem Anni. Plus, you should look at the door.' Mel replied tentatively. I turned to face the door and saw Cole standing there with **tears** in his eyes, one arm outstretched in a position ready to knock.

'Oh.' I thought, shocked, 'When did he get here?'

'Just before you started. He heard the whole poem Anni.' Mel replied calmly. I dropped the barrier and dove into Cole's emotions. He was mainly touched by my poem, but I could feel shock, surprise and reciprocating love towards me floating in the background.

'Hello,' I said.

'Hi Anni.' he responded automatically.

'What's the matter?' I asked, putting up the barrier.

'You wrote a love poem.'

'For English.' I continued.

'Oh. So it didn't mean anything?' he asked shyly.

'Well of course it meant something.' I replied defensively.

'S-sorry.' he stuttered, 'But you know what I meant.'

'Yeah.' I didn't elaborate.

'I'm still meeting you at lunch today, right?'

'Sure. You know which table. Come get me when you're ready. I'll explain the poem later.'

'Okay.' he sounded relieved. I took down the barrier and turned to face Professor Eccles. I realised that during Cole and my talk, the whole class **and** Professor Eccles had been staring at us.

"U-umm Professor?" I asked tentatively, "Did you like my poem?"

"Wha-what?" she snapped out of her gazing, "Oh. It was lovely Anni. Very inspiring work. I would like to see a copy of your poem. Please hand it to me at the beginning of next class."

"Sure thing Professor." I replied. A deadly silence was still echoing around the classroom. No one dared to break it, so I decided to do it myself.

"Mel," I whispered, "what do we have after lunch?"

"Oh." Mel had been staring too, "Umm, we have Music. Do you want to join our band?" she had caught onto what I was trying to do.

"Sure. Do you guys have a name for it yet?" I asked my friends, the back row.

"U-umm, no. Not yet." Jessica replied.

"We were going to brainstorm ideas for it during Music and maybe give you the music." Lilli said dreamily. She almost sounded like Laura.

Finally, chatter erupted in the classroom. It was like that was their maximum limit of silence in one day. It was quite funny actually. Professor Eccles drew in a deep breath and smoothed out her skirt before walking to the door where Cole was waiting patiently, his outstretched arm now by his side and the tears mysteriously gone without a trace. Professor Eccles nodded curtly to Cole and came to the back of the class, "Your brother would like to talk to the both of you."

Jesse and Liam walked up to the front of the classroom where Cole spoke softly but slightly urgently to them. They turned to each other, exchanged a weird glance then turned back to Cole and shrugged.

"Hey Anni, when's your birthday?" Mel asked me.

"March thirtieth. Why?" I replied.

"I was wondering when I'd need to get you a present."

"Oh." I replied. I wasn't paying much attention to her. I was too busy studying Cole. He wasn't talking to the twins anymore, but he was concentrating very hard on something. I tried to read his mind, but there was a barrier around it. He must have been having a conversation with Professor Eccles.

"What's your favourite flower?" Mel interrupted my train of thought.

"My favourite's London Pride. I think they're so adorable. Why?"

"Oh. I thought we could name our band after a type of flower. But I think London Pride's a beer as well."

"Okay. That's a great idea Mel." I was too busy trying to figure out what Cole was doing to be worried about Mel's questions. Cole couldn't have been talking to Professor Eccles because she was busying herself by telling off students who didn't complete their poems about love. The problem was, he wouldn't let me in on what he was talking about. I knew it couldn't be that private as the only people he could talk to were Professor Eccles, Mel or myself, and I'd already ruled out Professor Eccles and myself, so he must have been talking to Mel. I turned to Mel. She was staring intently at her poem. Mel couldn't have been talking to Cole. He must have been talking to someone else in the next classroom. The next minute, I looked up and Cole was talking to his brothers again. He gave them a pleading look which they responded with a should-we-do-it glance at each other and then a simultaneous nod. They turned back to Cole and the barrier dropped. I could hear what they were talking about.

'Okay. We'll do it.' Liam said.

'But only if...'

'Of course.' Cole interrupted Jesse, 'People can hear, you know.' he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

'Oh. Sorry.' Jesse apologised.

'Yeah. We forgot.' Liam continued.

'I'll see you later then.' Cole said with a wink.

'Sure.'

'Cya bro.'

Liam and Jesse returned to their seats as Cole turned and left the room without so much as a backward glance.

"Umm, Anni?" Liam asked tentatively. He could see that I was fuming about Cole not even acknowledging me when he left.

"Hmm?" I smiled sweetly at them both which made them hesitate.

"Cole wanted you to know that he didn't want to make a scene in the canteen, so could you please meet him in the back garden instead?" Jesse continued from his brothers stuttering.

"Sure. Where's that? And why didn't he tell me himself?" I asked getting a bit worked up.

"Mel can take you there from here. He said to bring the poem and all explanations. He said you'd know what it meant." Jesse said.

"And he needed to tell us something anyway, so he came to us. Plus, he said it would look a bit suspicious if you went up to him. It would..." Liam ran out of words.

"Provoke thoughts. You'd just read a love poem in which he cried. People are very observant." Jesse continued.

"And gossip spreads fast." Liam finished.

"Oh. Okay. Thanks for that." I smiled again, "Maybe you could help Mel with her band name search. She's resorting to flower names."

"Mel!" Liam turned to her, "How could you?!?"

"We'd never join a band called the Pansy's!" Jesse said jokingly.

"Or at least, not **willingly**." Liam cowered under Mel's glare. There seemed to be an underlying message that I couldn't decode. I threw it aside as my anger at Cole flared once again inside me. 'Why did he have to get his **brothers** of all people to tell me where to meet him?' I thought to myself, putting up a little barrier so no one could interrupt me. Just then, the siren sounded and Professor Eccles announced that class was dismissed.

"Come on Anni. Don't want to be late, do you?" Mel said optimistically.

"No." I replied grumpily. Mel knew why I was grumpy. I didn't hide it from her. But when she did find out, she had almost burst out laughing. Mel took me around the edge of the school.

"Make sure you remember to introduce Laura and Candii and Clair to the rest of them." I reminded her as we rounded yet **another** corner.

"I will Anni. Don't worry about them. They'll be fine with me. I'm going to leave you here. Go straight down this path and just before the end, you'll see a little track on the right-hand side. I'll see you in music." Mel said.

"Okay. See ya!" we embraced and then she pushed me down the path.

The path was very pretty. It was made out of cobblestones and large trees lined the edges; their branches meeting overhead and forming a beautiful arch. I soon found myself skipping down the cobblestones. It was so exhilarating, I almost forgot to look out for the track on the right. When I found the track, I thought it wasn't much to be excited about. It was made by people repeatedly going through this slight clearing in the trees. I made my way down the track, wondering how on **Earth** a garden could be at the end of this dusty track, when I saw it. The most amazing sight I'd ever seen. A small clearing in this forest of trees was laid with grass and a few tables and chairs were scattered around the place. But I didn't notice this at all. All I saw was Cole, standing there in the pale morning light holding a bunch of flowers. He beckoned me forward and I continued onwards, first walking, then jogging, and by the time I reached him, I was sprinting (at human pace). I flung my bag on the grass nearby at the same time I threw myself into Cole's awaiting arms. It was perfect; a truly spectacular moment. The embrace lasted a long time, but when I leant back, Cole made sure I was still in his arms. He took the flowers from the ground where they lay abandoned and I saw a bouquet of beautiful London Prides. I was so overwhelmed, I almost fell over. Cole caught me and said, "Here, sit down before you pass out." and he guided me to a nearby chair.

"Th-thank you" I said when I had finally gotten my voice back.

"My pleasure Anni. Now, I was wondering about that poem..." he trailed off.

"Oh yeah. Hold on a minute." I raced back to where I dumped my bag and walked back to Cole. I took out my English notebook where I had written the poem and the brainstorm.

"It meant something." I handed him the notepad. Cole sat there in silence, reading and re-reading the page. His eyes always stopped at one spot and I was about to ask him about it when he answered me, "The end of your poem. You said that you love someone."

"Yes, but you know that already." I reminded him.

"I know, but now it's on paper." he said.

"Oh. Well I'd never considered that before." I replied, "I thought you'd have stopped at... another spot."

"Do you mean the double underlined Cole?"he asked.

I blushed furiously before stammering, "Y-yes."

I pushed my chair closer to his and leant my head on his shoulder as we watched the sunrise together. I wish that moment could have lasted forever.

**I'd like to thank everyone who's given me advice on my story... And my friends for inspiration. It's getting a bit lame without school... Back to school in 4 days!!! Miss you Candice... R&R please =P**


	16. Chapter 14: Hunted

_I pushed my chair closer to his and leant my head on his shoulder as we watched the sunrise together. I wish that moment could have lasted forever._

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Chapter Fourteen – Hunted

I woke up, the white walls glistening around me in the artificial light. I tried to sit up, but when I tried, my head swam dizzyingly and I hadn't moved an inch. 'What the hell happened to me?' I thought to myself. I felt sick. There was a horrible feeling stirring in my stomach and I almost threw up. I glanced upwards. The clock on the wall read an hour after my meeting with Cole in the garden. I tried to remember what happened, but I kept drawing up blanks. Once, I was onto something but as I followed it, I realised that it only came to a dead end. My brain felt like mush. The harder I thought about it, the mushier it became. I felt a warm liquid above my lip and I tasted it. Blood. I had a blood nose, which had never in my entire life, human or otherwise, ever happened to me. 'Shit,' I thought, 'I must have amnesia.'

"You don't have amnesia." replied a strangely familiar voice.

I opened my mouth to speak, but no sound came out. 'What did you do to me?' I thought.

"Your memory has been erased, and we injected you with a paralytic serum. It will wear off in a few minutes and I must tell you something before you are fully conscious." a tall man with black hair and piercing blue eyes came into my line of vision. Walter.

'Walter! Help me!' I exclaimed. He laughed an unnatural, high-pitched laugh that chilled me to my bones. It suddenly occurred to me that the reason Walter was here was not to save me, but to hurt me. He was the one doing all these nasty experiments to me. I recalled all the times I had seen Walter and the times he had been so nice to me. In fact, I'd always assumed that he didn't like me because he was always so short with me.

Walter had been waiting patiently as the pieces clicked together in my brain and was now becoming weary of my thoughts as they turned to pointless concepts. "You will never recall any of the events that happened today. Or at least, you shouldn't." Walter's voice became a drone in my ear. I was struggling on the edge of unconsciousness, fighting against the blackness that I knew would mean I'd never recall what happened today. I was losing a grip on my own mind, holding on only by a single memory, watching the sunrise with Cole. There was suddenly a loud *_bang*_ and the sound of metal on stone. My mind was swimming and I opened my eyes to see Cole standing, blood-stained, in the doorway before I passed out.

* * *

"Is she okay?" a hushed voice asked from somewhere nearby.

"I think so." a hand brushed my cheek gently and swept an annoying strand of hair from tickling my ear, "She's still breathing, and her brain's working."

"Should we get her to the nurses' wing?" another voice said, coming closer and placing a cold compress on my forehead.

"No!" I sat up abruptly, knocking off the compress and snapping my eyes open. Everyone froze, except me because I slumped back on my pillows from dizziness. I groaned. A stabbing pain was piercing the front of my brain. It felt like someone was poking a needle into my head and injecting the memories of today... or yesterday, back into it.

"Anni, you need to lie down. I brought you back to your room. I won't take you to the nurses' wing." Cole said worriedly. His eyebrows furrowed in a small frown and I sighed. I had the cutest boyfriend in the universe.  
"Okay Coach." I replied croakily and rolled onto my side to try to get to sleep.

"What happened to her?" Mel shouted smashing through the wall. This didn't seem unusual at the time, but when I thought about it, I realised Mel had become super-strong too.

"Shh!" commanded everyone else.

"It's okay. I'm awake anyway. Just a bit hungry?" I hinted and Jessica rose gracefully and stepped out of the Mel-shaped hole in the wall into the hall.

"I'm glad you're okay Anni." Mel turned a compassionate face towards me before snapping her head around to the rest of the room and fixing everyone with a beady-eyed glare, "I expected you all to come and get me! She's my best friend! I had to witness everything happening through Anni's mind! I was so worried, and no one told me she was back! She could've died for all I knew! I only found out a few minutes ago that she was awake, let alone conscious and alive!"

Cole walked from my bed to Mel and placed his hands on her shoulders, "Calm down Mel. I only just brought Anni back. It just so happened that these four were skipping class and we ran into them. I didn't know which class you were in, so I couldn't call you or your teacher. Sorry."

"It's okay Cole. I understand why **you** didn't come and get me. I mean, look at you! You're drenched in blood. Plus, I know what it feels like to be really far away from Anni. I figure it has something to do with the bond. Right?" she asked, calming down a bit and slumping into a vacant chair near my bed.

"I think you might be right. They were experimenting on us and she was a couple hundred kilometres away from me when I broke free of my chamber and was drawn to her energy. It was like she was trying to send me a distress signal, except no one else could hear it... well, except you." Cole replied remembering the gut wrenching feeling. I was recalling the experiments and I shuddered suddenly. All attention was drawn back to me.

"It's okay. Just... the experiments." I shuddered again, "But I am a bit cold. It's okay." I added when all of them got up and moved towards the blanket drawer, "Jessica's getting me soup. Ooh! My favourite kind of soup!"

Just then, Jessica stepped through balancing a bowl of pumpkin soup, bread, a fruit bowl, and a few assorted soft drinks on a small rectangular tray. "Thanks so much Jess. I owe you for this." I took the bowl of soup, a slice of bread, and a can of red creaming soda. The bowl of fruit was passed around the group, along with cans of Coke, Solo and Fanta. I gulped the steaming soup down, realising I was hungry, as I hadn't had lunch. Everyone watched me as I up-ended the can of red creaming soda and reached for a banana. "You hungry?" Liam asked jokingly, breaking the silence. Everyone laughed and little flecks of grape Fanta and Coke were sprayed onto the black and white carpet. I wolfed down the banana and turned to my friends, "What's the time?" I asked curiously.

"Almost midnight." Mel replied, her anger ebbing away with each bite of food.

"Midnight as in... tomorrow? How long have we been away?" I asked Cole.

"Almost a day." he replied.

"Shit! I've lost a whole day of... of everything! I missed Music and Biology and NT! My favourite subjects! I'm gonna be so behind!" I said anxiously.

"You're top of the class in all those subjects Anni. I'm sure you'll be fine." Mel said reassuringly.

"So you like NT huh?" Cole asked.

"Well, I like Music, Bio and NT. They're my top three." I replied going a deep shade of crimson.

"I wonder why you like NT." Liam added with a smirk and everyone laughed again, though this time, Lilli and Jesse's Cokes both ended upside-down on the carpet.

"Hey! That carpet is extremely hard to clean!" Mel shouted, but you could tell by the tone of her voice that she didn't have her heart in it. Besides, **we** didn't have to clean it.

"Come on guys. You need to get to class. I don't want **you** guys to all get detention coz of me. Besides, I need someone taking notes in my classes." I said standing, shakily, from my bed and opening the door.

I heard some of them mutter, "Sure" and "If I have to" and Liam said loudly, "Smart-ass!" and Jesse replied, "No! Teacher's pet!" to which everyone laughed. Eventually, they all cleared out and I was left in my room alone... well, almost alone.

"Can I use your shower?" Cole asked glancing down at his blood-soaked t-shirt.

"Sure, but you don't have any clothes to change into." I replied.

"Yeah. Actually, I do." Cole walked over to my window, opened it and leant out of it precariously. When he came back inside, he was carrying a small, midnight blue backpack with his initials on the front.

"I thought I might need this one day, so I hid it here." Cole emptied the contents of the bag onto the carpet, "Clothes, shoes, food, batteries and a torch."

I wasn't listening to him though. I was wondering why he thought he might need it and left it outside of **my** bedroom window. I mean, he could have just as easily hidden it outside **his** bedroom window.

"Why?" I asked.

"Hmm?" Cole asked, stopping counting his assorted clothes.

"Why would you need, what seems like, an escape bag and why would you hide it outside of **my** window?" I asked, moving away from the door and towards Cole.

"Well... I thought I might need it because... I... I had a thought... while you were unconscious..." he trailed off, looking extremely embarrassed and flushing a brilliant scarlet colour.

"You know, you can tell me anything. I love you." I said slumping on the floor next to him and kissing his hot cheek.

"Well, I thought we might be in danger, you know what with being kidnapped, and so I packed this escape bag in front of your window in case we needed to make a quick getaway." Cole said in a flurry of words.

"I s'pose that's a good enough reason." I put my head on his shoulder and immediately regretted it. I wrinkled my nose and shuffled away from Cole.

"What's the matter?" Cole asked, thinking I was repulsed by him.

"It's just... blood. I hate it. Can you go have a shower now?" I asked.

"O-okay." he stammered. No one had ever met a vampire who didn't like blood; though no one had ever met me before either. And besides, as babies we're not meant to like blood, the stupid humans made up that idiotic stereotype years ago.

I sat on my bed, scrolling through the long list of songs on my iPod. Suddenly I heard a soft voice, echoing around my brain saying, 'I'm not done with you, or your stupid little boyfriend.'

I screamed in terror and flopped back onto my bed, shaking violently at the sound of Walter's voice. Cole burst out of the bathroom, wearing only a towel, and running towards me, "Anni! Anni! It's okay! We're okay! You're safe now." Cole said trying to calm me, but I could hear the panic and worry in his voice, not only for me, but as he too had heard Walter's voice in my head.

"Anni, pack a bag. We gotta leave now. We'll go grab the twins and Mel and whoever else you want to come and meet back here in twenty minutes to pack. Okay?" Cole said, pulling himself together and making up his mind that, although he was a valued member of the VH community, we must leave to protect us all.

"Okay Cole. But put some clothes on first." I said as he walked towards the window.

"Oops. Yeah. Good idea. Run!" he let out a nervous giggle then stole a furtive glance at the clock on the wall.

I ran like the wind to the bio classroom. I knew I was going to miss Annissa, but I couldn't really steal her from the front of the class.

'What do you need Anni?' Annissa asked.

'I need to steal Mel and the twins please.' I replied hastily.

'Why Anni? What's wrong?' Annissa asked worriedly.

'Cole and I are being hunted and we thought it would be good if we took everyone who might be possible targets with us. Could you come with us? Or meet us in twenty minutes in Mel and my room?' I asked hopefully.

'Sure. Mel and the twins are coming now. I'll see you in twenty minutes.' Annissa replied and as the door opened, I saw her face, tear-streaked and pale, turn to me and give me a watery smile. She bustled off to the side of the classroom and grabbed a large black satchel as the door closed on Mel and the twins.

"What's happening?" Jess asked softly.

"Cole and I are being hunted and we think anyone who's connected to us might be in danger. Pack a small bag, we leave in twenty minutes." I said. The twins headed off towards the dorms.

"I'm coming with you Anni." Mel said.

"Okay." I replied and headed towards the universal room. I found Laura, Candii, Clair, Lin and a person I knew was a new exchange student huddled in a corner.

"Hey Anni! Hey Mel! This is Roxi; she's an exchange student from Japan." Lin said, "What's wrong?" she added noticing our worried expressions.

"We've got to get out of here. We're all being hunted. Explain later, kay? Bring your friends and pack a bag. We've got to make a quick getaway. Meet in our room in fifteen minutes." Mel said softly.

"Okay." they replied simultaneously.

Mel and I sprinted back to our dorm. By this time, Cole had packed a few bags and dumped them in a small cluster in the far corner of our room. I dashed to my wardrobe, pulled out my most practical clothes and stuffed them in a purple satchel I found lying on my dresser. I then moved around the room, packing necessary and sentimental items in the satchel. Meanwhile, Mel was doing the same, and her items were not unlike mine. We dumped our bags with the rest and placed our instrument cases gently nearby. Then, we walked over to the secret drawer and opened it. There wasn't much in it; a couple of packets of crisps, chocolate, lollies, a stack of unwritten birthday cards and a note... from Walter. Mel and I decided not to open it until we were alone with Cole and at that moment, Cole decided to fly through the window along with four new bags.

"What's in all those bags?" Mel asked.

"Food, water, supplies." Cole replied panting.

"Oh. Good idea." I said as the twins walked through the Mel-hole, followed by Lin, Laura, Candii, Clair, Roxi and five new people, two of which were holding hands, the others, a blonde, snotty-looking girl and her two cronies, both brunette and all quite attractive, looking extremely out of place.

"Well this looks like everyone." said Cole, "We can make an early getaway."

"No!" Mel and I yelled simultaneously, "We can't leave without Annissa. She's gonna be here any minute!" I explained.

"Very well then, but if she's not here in five minutes, I'm sorry but we must leave." Cole said.

"Okay." we replied glumly.

We had decided to play a name game during the five minutes. Naturally, everyone knew me, Mel, Lin and the twins. Laura, Candii and Clair were unbeknownst to anyone, mostly because they kept to themselves more often than not. Roxi introduced herself next; she was an exchange student from the VH in Japan and she arrived yesterday while I was knocked out. Lin introduced a purple-haired girl named Daniella and her boyfriend Rhys. They had apparently been going out before they were turned. Finally, the three snotty girls came forwards to introduce themselves, "I'm Elli and these are Renée and Pippa. We're eighteen, making **us **older than **you**." the blonde girl said very snobbishly. I could already think of their stereotypes. Elli was the "popular group" leader and Renée and Pippa were the bodyguards. They were the popular-because-bitchy-and-rich type; the ones I avoided.

"Actually," Liam said boldly, "Cole's older than you. He's nineteen." Elli turned a furious shade of red and you could almost see the smoke coming from her ears. I could tell that she hadn't **ever** been spoken to like that before.

'Oh well,' I thought, 'I'm sure we're doing the rest of the school a favour by taking them away.'

Five minutes seemed to pass by very quickly, but Annissa still hadn't shown. We were all getting very worried until Cole finally spoke, "We can't wait any longer. We'll just have to go without Annissa."

"No! I can sense her. She's coming. She's..." I paused and spun around, "here."

"Thank you for waiting for me. Shall we get a move on?" Annissa said cheerfully, but no one was paying any attention to her. Everyone was staring at me, yet again.

"Oh joy." I said sarcastically, "Just what I need. Everyone staring at me while we're staging our escape from here." People slowly turned to face Cole, but once in a while would throw a glance in my direction.

"Let's go. Follow me." Cole picked up his bag and a couple others and jumped out of the window. I picked up my bag and the remainder of supply bags and started helping everyone out of the window after Cole. Mel and Annissa went just before me. I glanced back at the room. I'd only been in it for five days but already it felt like home. I was going to miss the Coke-stained carpet, the bathroom that, since Cole had showered, had blood footprints on the floor, the Mel-hole, and the awesome wardrobe.

"Anni! We've gotta go now!" Jesse yelled up at me. I walked backwards to the window, not paying attention to where I was going and falling backwards out the open window. I quickly twisted myself into a squashed position so I didn't break **too** many bones when I felt a set of strong arms enclose me. I looked up to see Cole giving me a disapproving look, but he couldn't hold it and soon smirked at me. I was still shaken, but we needed to press on, so I jumped out of Cole's arms, making sure I took one of his hands with me and walked on beside him.

After a while, the darkness surrounding us was becoming creepy and the eerie sounds of the night were no help. Occasionally one of us would jump and we'd all stop to look around, but it always turned out to be nothing. The only person who didn't seem to be uncomfortable was, unsurprisingly, Laura. "Where are we going?" asked Laura suddenly.

"It's like a two-storey house, but below ground. It's behind a secret compartment in the basement of the ice-cream store on the corner of Hazel and Emerald Street. We need to pick up the pace." Cole replied.

"We're going as fast as possible. We're running!" Jesse replied. Cole turned to me and I figured out what he wanted to do. We all stopped.

"Anni, Mel, Annissa and I can all run fast and are strong." Cole said, "If you would allow us, we could carry you to the place."

"Eew!" squealed Elli, "None of you **common-folk** are going to touch **me**!"

"Yeah." agreed Renée and Pippa.

"Oh really?" Mel asked sarcastically and moved forwards. They all took a hurried step back, but Mel was too fast for them. She had scooped them all up and was now carrying them; Elli on her back and one of her cronies in each arm. They all shrieked and screamed until they were hoarse and Elli realised that this meant a free ride.

Cole picked up Jesse and Liam and carried them, dumping his numerous bags on the ground. Annissa offered for her to carry Jessica and Lilli and the greatly obliged. So I was left with Laura, Candii, Clair, Roxi and the bags.

"It's okay. I can blend in remember? In fact, I can take a few people if you want." Laura said.

"Sure. You take Daniella and Rhys and we'll meet you all there later." I replied and Laura latched onto the two and faded away. Cole picked Roxi up and Annissa did the same with Candii. I carried Clair and the countless bags and sprinted with everyone to the ice-cream parlour.

"Laura? Where are you?" Mel yelled.

"She dropped us here and said she was going to go get some more supplies." Rhys stated.

"Oh okay." I said and we all traipsed into the ice cream parlour, down the stairs into the basement and then through a trapdoor into what seemed to be a well-equipped two-storey house.

**Sorry I have been writing this really long chapter. Hope you like it. R&R!!! =P**


	17. Chapter 15: Alixx

_"Oh okay." I said and we all traipsed into the ice cream parlour, down the stairs into the basement and then through a trapdoor into what seemed to be a well-equipped two-storey house._

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen – Alixx**

I was lying next to Cole on the damp earth-of-a-floor in Mel and my room. He was, once again, recounting the events of yesterday's kidnapping for me. It felt complicated to watch it through Cole's eyes. It started with us watching the sunrise. Then, he turned to me because he felt me go limp in his arms and he saw a needle sticking out of my upper arm (I winced). A large black helicopter came down and men dressed in black swung down from ropes to the ground and took me from him (how cliché). Then, Cole was gagged and his limbs bound and he was thrown into the back of the helicopter, which had meanwhile landed, along with the unconscious me. He remembered freeing his hands and trying to shake me awake but he was caught out. There was a massive fight mid-flight and Cole ended up bloody and bound again (Cole glanced down at the scars on his wrists where the rope had burned away his skin while he was struggling to get free). They arrived somewhere and I was taken away to that horrible experiment lab. Then, the helicopter lifted off again and tears were streaming silently down Cole's face. They arrived at the new experiment lab where they hurled Cole inside, unbound and ungagged him. Walter stalked in through the open door and it snapped shut behind him. Cole threw himself at Walter, but he was expecting this and he stabbed Cole with a needle full of the paralytic serum. Cole immediately fell to the ground, stiff and rigid (I screamed. "It's okay Anni." Cole soothed me). Then Walter was talking, "You're not going to remember any of this." Walter didn't have to explain anymore. Cole had never trusted him, through his four years at VH and he turned out to be right. He was becoming sleepy and he couldn't open his eyes anymore. The only thing Cole was holding onto his mind with was with the memory of me, unconscious. He knew that if he didn't survive, I wouldn't be saved. Then, a strange thing happened. The serum lifted and Cole was free again. He lay still for a few moments until he was sure there was no one around, when he opened his eyes and sat up. Then, a wave of nausea hit him so bad that he recoiled (I almost threw up as he experienced this feeling again). There was a gut wrenching sensation and he felt like hands were behind him, guiding him somewhere and then he was jerked forward with a loud _*pop*_ and the next minute, he was standing outside **my** cell. Cole bashed down the door and saw me lying on the steel table, arms and legs strapped tightly to the bench. Walter came at him with a murderous look in his eyes and a needle in his hand. Cole spun quickly, finding a fire extinguisher on the wall. He ripped it out of its holder and thumped Walter on the head. Walter collapsed and Cole rushed over to me. He unstrapped me and then carried my limp body all the way back to VH where he laid me on my bed.

Cole sat up and turned to me, tears glistening in his eyes, and studied my face. All I was showing was my concern for his safety and two long tear tracks down my face, with new ones brimming in my eyes. We embraced and sat like that for hours with silent tears running down both of our cheeks. Cole kissed my cheek, wiping away the tear that was running down my cheek at that moment. "I love you." he murmured in my ear.

"I love you too." I whispered back.

* * *

I awoke to the sound of soft tapping at the door. Cole and I had fallen asleep on the earthen floor in each other's arms. I silently crept out of his hold and to the door.

"Hello?" I whispered, opening the door.

"Anni, it's Mel. It's getting late and we need to ration out the food." Mel peered around the door, "Is Cole **sleeping**?" she turned back to me suspiciously, "What did you two **do**?"

"Oh my gosh! Do you **really** need to think like that?" I replied disgusted.

"No, sorry. I was only joking. Jeez!" Mel replied, chuckling to herself.

"It's okay." I chuckled with her. Just then, Cole stirred. We ceased our laughing and I walked over to Cole, "Cole? It's dinner-time." I nudged him gently.

"Wha-what?" Cole sat up abruptly, stretched, rubbed his eyes and looked around, "Where am I?"

"You're in my room. We fell asleep. It's dinner-time now. Come on. You're the oldest, you're the leader. You have to ration out the food."

"Oh. Good idea." Cole got to his feet and walked outside, motioning for us to follow him, "I need you to meet someone."

"Sure." Mel and I replied.

Cole took us down the hall to the secret trapdoor leading into the ice-cream parlour. He knocked sharply three times. A small _*tap tap tap*_ issued from the other side of the door and then, the trapdoor creaked open and a boy was revealed. He was dark skinned with short, black hair, and he was a bit taller than me. He looked the same age as me. The boy smiled and said, "Hey Cole. Who're your friends?"

"Alixx, this is Anni and Mel." Cole said, gesturing to me and Mel respectively.

"Hi Anni. Hi Mel." Alixx said.

"Hey Alixx." I replied as Mel giggled and blushed profusely and then turned away shyly.

"Anyway," he turned back to Cole, "what did you need me for?"

"We need some food and drinks. We're all gonna be crashing here for a while. I can give you the money to buy the stuff. Also, I wanted you to meet Anni and Mel so that if they come up here, you won't get freaked out."

"Oh. Okay. Thanks. I'll go get some stuff now. Remember, if you feel like ice cream, you just have to come up to the basement. It's always deserted, so it's safe for you to come up." Alixx disappeared up the stairs leading from the basement to the main store. Cole shut the door and lead us back down the corridor to the giant staircase.

"So d'you like Alixx?" Cole asked airily.

"Absolutely!" we replied together and we all laughed.

"Alixx is a vampire, believe it or not." Cole explained, "He's a **natural** vampire. He's the only natural-born since Angelina Jolie; and she's been around for centuries. A natural vampire is when you are born a vampire from non-vampire parents. In his case, his parents were both severe dunks. They were drunk when they named him Alixx. They couldn't even spell it correctly, A-L-I-X-X."

"I think it's okay." Mel muttered.

"Anyway, they dumped him on what they thought was an orphanage's doorstep, but happened to be this ice cream parlour and it just so happened that my father, who was also a vampire, was walking along this street when he found him and realised what he was immediately. He kept him secret until the day he was murdered, when he told me of Alixx's story. I've been keeping Alixx a secret ever since. Alixx is sorta like a third little brother. He's a lot nicer than my real bro's though. Probably coz he's been a vampire for his whole life and he's only fourteen." Cole said ignoring Mel's comment.

Mel had been creeping closer to Cole with every word that tumbled from his mouth. She was hanging onto every word he said and Cole had realised that, so he shut up.

"Sooo..." I said, but Cole cut across me.

"No Anni, it's not so. Mel I'm sorry, but it's my job to protect him. He's been like my little bro and I can't let you like him and then break his little heart. I know **all** about Ryan and your stupid little crush. The difference here is he's younger than you. He's never experienced this before and the first person who breaks his heart should at least have **her** whole heart in him. Ryan's a big boy. Go break his heart. Don't mess with my little bro's head." Cole was bright red and dangerous. Mel nodded timidly and hung her head in embarrassment.

"What's all the racket?" Roxi asked creeping up the stairs cautiously, preparing herself in case Cole blew up at her too. Cole, meanwhile, had been eyeing Mel angrily. I couldn't be bothered listening to their conversation so I answered Roxi, "It's okay. We're arguing about who's gonna get the supplies every day. Don't worry about it. We'll sort it out."

"Oh. Okay. Also, we were just wondering what was for dinner... well, **Elli** was wondering very loudly..." Roxi added.

"Umm... Cole?" I turned and tapped Cole, "What's for dinner?"

"Huh? Oh. Dinner? I think we're having pizza. Could you do me a favour and ask everyone what toppings they want?" Cole said turning to Roxi.

"Uh, sure." Roxi said spinning around and almost running downstairs.

"You scared her!" I said whirling around to face Cole, "Not that she's not independent, but still! You should soften your expression or something."

"Kay. Next time. I should probably go tell Alixx that we want pizzas. Can you take Mel into your room and... I dunno... do girl stuff like paint your nails or something." Cole said harshly.

"No wonder she was scared." I muttered before leading Mel down the hall and into our room. I felt anger and shock bubble in Cole before he thought that I had a good point and he stalked down the hall to call Alixx.

"Why, Mel?" I asked her, closing the bedroom door.

"Why what, Anni?" Mel asked innocently.

"Oh you know **perfectly** well what!" I shouted pulling out my midnight blue nail polish.

"Well..." Mel started.

"No Mel. This isn't a well situation! Yesterday you were lovesick for Ryan. Today you meet someone new and you're hooked on him! What's with you? Get a grip on yourself woman!" I said almost crushing the bottle.

"It's not like that Anni." Mel hesitated, "I met Alixx before I was turned, when I was... younger. Five years ago, actually. I liked him straight away, but my father had said that he wasn't appropriate for me. I was too good for him or something. I told them that I didn't care. That we were in love. But they didn't listen to me. Instead, they took me to Doha in Qatar. The furthest place away from here, I felt. Eventually, I trained myself not to think of him. A few years later, I had finally felt I was **almost** over him. I was turned and was shipped to this VH. I met Ryan and had a crush on him. Now I see that crush was just hiding my feelings for Alixx. When I saw him today, I realised who he was immediately. Especially because of the name. He didn't recognise me though. I wouldn't expect him to. When we moved, my parents dyed my hair **this** colour and changed my name from Kaitee to Mel. Anni, what do I do?" Mel said now sobbing profusely into her pillows.

"Awww... Mel, why didn't you tell me this before? I would've understood. Or at least done my best. I can understand your lovesickness anyway. We need to tell Cole. He'll understand if you explain it to him fully. Besides, that'd mean he's **already** had his heart broken **by you** and your whole heart **is** in him." I said sitting down beside her and hugging her.

"I tried. He's too protective." Mel said.

"Not when I'm involved." I said and smirked.

"Thanks Anni, but I don't want your help. I don't even know if he still loves me like I love him. Like old times." Mel said reminiscing.

"There's only one way to find out." I stood up and opened the door but Mel pulled me back onto the bed, "No." she said and I understood. She needed to find out more before she actually asked him.

"Let's do our nails kay?" I said to try and get our minds off the Alixx topic.

"Sure." Mel said taking the bottle from my hands and pulling my hand from her shoulder, "Cole'll like this colour."

"Mmhmm. Exactly my plan." I said just as Elli walked past our door saying, "Eew that colour looks **disgusting**!!!"

"Let's make a list of To-Do's." I said and grabbed out a spare piece of paper from a drawer as Mel painted my toes.

I wrote:

1. Get Cole on Mel's side

2. Help Mel with Alixx

3. Kill Elli =P

I showed the list to Mel and she cracked up. We were rolling around laughing when Elli walked past again with her nose upturned and we started up again. When we had composed ourselves, Mel finished painting my nails and I got up and walked out of the room saying, "I'm going to talk to Cole."

When I got to the trapdoor, I found it ajar. It seemed very suspicious to me, so I climbed out of the trapdoor and into the basement. The sight I was met with was very ugly.

"Cole!!! Alixx!!! Help us Mel!!!" I shrieked as a masked figure advanced towards me and pretty shapes and popping light swam before my eyes.

**R&R =P**


	18. Chapter 16: DoubleCrossed

_**AN: This chapter's dedicated to Laura...**_

* * *

_"Cole!!! Alixx!!! Help us Mel!!!" I shrieked as a masked figure advanced towards me and pretty shapes and popping light swam before my eyes._

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen – Double-Crossed**

My eyes were blindfolded and I was gagged. I couldn't believe it. I was being kidnapped... **again**! Why did all the weird things happen to me? I get advanced abilities and two bonds and then I'm kidnapped twice; probably by the same person. I thought back to the first kidnapping and shuddered. Well that was a good sign. At least I could shudder. Then I remembered what happened before the pretty light show. The scene flashed before my eyes, a vivid memory in the front of my mind. I saw the basement of the ice cream parlour. Men dressed in black and wearing masks lined the walls and the doorway. I saw two men holding up limp Cole and another two men holding a bruised, but still slightly conscious, Alixx. I then saw the most peculiar sight. Four people descended from the main store into the basement. There was the mysterious Laura who was walking closely behind two figures I had no clue about; one was a short and slender girl with a deep red hair and crimson eyes. The other was a tall, bulky male with short brown hair and the same crimson eyes. Finally, behind Laura, was the infamous Walter. I remember yelling for help and then a rough man clocking me over the head with something heavy and a high-pitched cackle echoing around the freezing basement.

I suddenly felt Cole's brain whir into action. He, like me, was recalling the events before he was knocked out. I immediately put up a barrier around us and asked, 'Are you okay?'

'I'm fine Anni. How about you?' Cole replied.

'Fine. Can Alixx mind-read yet?' I asked.

'No not yet. But that doesn't mean that we can't read his mind.' Cole said.

'Good idea. He might give us some hints on what happened before we were all knocked out.' I said and we jumped into Alixx's mind, extending the barrier together.

Alixx was walking down the stairs into the basement. He'd heard the signal from the trapdoor. (Secretly, he was hoping it was going to be Mel. She reminded him of someone he loved once.) He pulled open the trapdoor and was slightly disappointed to see Cole revealed in the doorway.

"Pizza," Cole said, "We need three cheese, two vegetarian and one meatball pizza. Here." Cole passed Alixx the money.

"Sure." Alixx replied and turned to leave when Cole caught his shoulder.

"Alixx, you've been like a little brother to me. I want you to promise me you won't date people you don't know." Cole said.

"I promise." Alixx said. Suddenly, Cole's eyes widened horribly and Alixx was pushed onto the ground. There was a muffled groan as Cole was injected with an unconscious serum and a loud *bang* issued as Cole's limp body hit the cold ground. Masked men surrounded Alixx and he stood up. Cole had been teaching him the basics and Alixx ran through his training sessions in his mind before striking out at one of the masked men. Several other men grabbed him and started pummelling him. Alixx ended up so battered and bruised, that he couldn't see out of his now puffy eyes. However, he heard me come through the door and yell his and Cole's names before yelling for help and being knocked out. He too blacked out from the pain at that moment and Cole and I swam back to our own bodies.

'I can't believe they'd do **that** to a-a child!!!" I exclaimed.

'That's life though. We have to make it our mission now to protect Alixx. He is incapable of fighting off anyone and we're fit to fight a pack of giants if it comes to that." Cole said.

'Let's hope it doesn't come to that. You shouldn't be too protective of him Cole. I understand he's like your little brother, but let him have some freedom.' I said.

'What do you mean Anni? I give him plenty of freedom.' Cole replied.

'No. You don't Cole. Listen...' I said and explained Mel's story to Cole as I saw his mind-eyes widen in shock.

'Really?' Cole asked.

'I trust Mel. I believe her. Plus, didn't you hear Alixx's mind? He said he was hoping it was Mel because she reminded him of someone he once loved.' I replied.

'That still doesn't prove anything Anni, but I trust you, so if you trust Mel, then I trust Mel too.' Cole said.

'Well I do. Anyway, we have to formulate a plan. Where are we?' I asked.

'I have no idea. Wait. I'll open my eyes a bit. I'm not blindfolded.' Cole said. I saw through his mind a dusty concrete floor. A small body lay in the corner of the room. There were no feet to be seen anywhere. I opened my eyes, then realised that **I** couldn't see. **I** was blindfolded. Cole opened his eyes fully. He spat out his gag and struggled with the rope binding his hands. Eventually, he freed his hands and proceeded to untie his legs. Cole then untied and ungagged me and we stumbled over to the body in the corner. It was Alixx. I gasped loudly as I saw a long, deep gash running from just below his left temple, along his jaw line to his chin. Cole snapped his head to me and gestured for me to shut up and then went back to untying Alixx. Alixx was soon fully unbound and conscious. He staggered to his feet and turned to us, "Thanks." he said.

"Shh!" we replied.

"Why? It's not like there's..." Alixx was spinning around the room and stopped, staring up at the roof, "cameras."

"Oh shit!" I exclaimed.

"What? What is it?" Alixx asked becoming edgy.

"It's a trap. That's why there aren't any guards and why I wasn't blindfolded. We've been tricked." Cole explained.

"Oh shit!" Alixx said.

Suddenly, a door on the left of the room opened and Walter, Laura and the two other people who were with them before, entered.

"Good. You're all awake." Walter said happily, "Introductions first. This is Aliss and this is Kris." he gestured to both of them respectively.

"You're the dark magic people. Mel's friends!" I said before I could stop myself.

"Yes... Dark magic people." Kris sneered.

"Mel's friends? No way." Aliss finished.

"Now!" Walter said dramatically and the room fell silent, "Have you guessed it yet?"

"What?" Alixx asked stupidly.

"That Walter, Kris, Aliss and Laura are all allies. They're the bad guys. Laura was planted in our group of friends as a spy. She was feeding information to Walter, who was then capturing us and experimenting on us and giving the results to Aliss and Kris. Get it?" Cole explained patiently to Alixx.

"Oh. Yeah. That makes heaps of sense." Alixx replied enthusiastically and for a moment he stood grinning. Then, as Cole's words sank in, his grin faded and tears welled up in his eyes. Alixx's thoughts had me on the brink of tears too. He was thinking of Mel and all the time he spent with her and all the time he wished he could've spent with her as he assumed he was going to die.

"Please," I begged, "please let him go. He's only a child."

"Yes. A child who's a natural vampire." Laura said mysteriously, "The first one in a few centuries."

"I thought you were my friend!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah. And I thought you were smart." Laura replied.

"Girls." Walter said and all the attention turned back to him, "Now. Let's get down to business."

I curled into a ball and spontaneously burst into tears as Alixx's thoughts turned back to Mel. Cole moved over to me, "Shh... It's okay Anni. We'll see them again. I promise you. Shh... Shh... It'll be alright... I won't let anything happen to you. I won't let anything happen to any of us. I love you. I promise." Cole muttered into my ear as he rocked with me, back and forwards, back and forwards. He kissed my forehead just before he stood up, "You're not going to touch them without going through me first." he pushed Alixx next to me.

"No Cole. I couldn't bear it if you got hurt. I'm fighting for you." I said shakily and got to my feet, standing next to Cole.

"I'm fighting for Mel." Alixx said boldly, also getting to his feet and standing beside Cole.

Suddenly there was a small popping noise and Mel and the twins were standing huddled in a corner.

"M-Mel?" Alixx and I stuttered.

"What are **you** four doing here?" Cole asked the twins.

"Well, Mel was explaining how you got kidnapped and she was all upset so Jess and I went over to comfort her, when she felt really sick." Lilli said.

"Yeah. So we went over to Mel too and we were all rubbing her back when we ended up here." Liam finished.

"Fascinating." Walter muttered, writing down notes in his diary.

"I'm fighting for Alixx." Mel said standing beside Alixx and his eyes widened in surprise.

"And we're fighting for each other." the twins decided.

"You might have us outnumbered, but you'll never have us out-skilled." Kris said.

"Really?" Cole asked, glancing at me. The "bad guys" looked uneasy.

"Ready?" I muttered.

"GO!" Mel yelled and we all rushed forwards to attack.

Mel and Cole were fighting alongside Alixx, helping him fight Kris. Lilli and Liam were fighting Aliss while Jesse and Jess were fighting Laura. I still couldn't believe she was evil. I walked up to Walter and got into a ready position. He threw away his diary and turned to face me. "Do you really think you can face me **alone**?" he chuckled.

"Yeah. I can." I said confidently.

"Prepare to die Anni Stoker." Walter said.

"No. You prepare." I said as Walter aimed a kick and missed. We circled each other for a small amount of time and then we struck. I leapt over him as he swiped the ground and turned in time to place a well-aimed kick in the small of his back. Walter keeled over. I was, conveniently, wearing stilettos and blood spurted from the small hole I made in Walter.

"You'll have to do much better than that Anni." Walter said, aiming a punch at me. I twisted a second too late and it hit me in the side of the ribs. My scream rent the air. I felt my legs buckle from the pain in my side. I'd broken half the ribs on that side of my body. I was lying on the floor, clutching my side. Then, a weird, tingling sensation took place somewhere close to my heart and spread out until the ribs in my side didn't feel as bad.

"Ow." I said standing up and turning to Walter. Walter rushed at me, which I wasn't expecting, and caught a hold of my neck. I was, once again, lying on my back on the concrete ground. Walter was strangling me, but not for long. I remembered what we were doing in the very first NT I went to. I flipped him over onto his back and the roles were reversed. I could see Walter was struggling under my grip. His face was slowly turning from pale to red. Suddenly, I was ripped off Walter like a band-aid and flung into the opposite wall.

"Anni!" Cole yelled, rushing to my side.

"Walter." I choked out, and Cole understood. He stood up and walked over to Walter. They collided with a _*BANG*_ and dust swirled around the air. I coughed and lost sight of them for a second, but when they reappeared, Cole was winning. Aliss was walking over to me now. I jumped up and kicked her. She stumbled backwards a few paces which gave me enough time for me to smack her head against the wall. She slid down the wall and fell in a crumpled heap at the bottom. I turned around, searching for the experimental serums. I walked over to a small corner where a tray was and a few syringes were labelled "paralytic serum". I took four syringes of it and walked over to the wall. I jabbed the needle in Aliss's arm and injected the serum. She became very stiff and I was sure she wouldn't be walking around for a while. I snuck up behind Kris. Mel and Alixx weren't going very well. They had both landed blows, but received double in return. I injected Kris with the serum and he became rigid before collapsing on the floor. Laura lunged at me, but I was ready for her and as she collided with me, I stuck the needle in and she crumpled on the floor. Finally, there was only Walter. He decided to ignore Cole and focus on me. Big mistake. Cole landed five consecutive punches and Walter doubled over. "Any last words?" Cole asked him.

"Yeah." he said and swiped at Cole's legs. Cole lost balance and smacked his head on the concrete flooring, knocking him out.

"Shit! Cole!" I screamed. Walter's cackle echoed around the silent room. I wasn't thinking straight. I lunged forwards at Walter. He was so surprised by my attack that he stood still for a moment too long. I pierced his leg with the syringe and he collapsed in a heap on the floor.

"Phew." I said.

"I know what ya mean." Mel said.

"Can we go home now?" Jesse asked.

"Sure." We all replied.

I walked over to Cole, "It's okay Cole. I promise I'll look after you." I whispered to him as I lifted him into my arms and we all walked out of the building.

**R&R... lotsa smilezz and happy reading!!! =P**


	19. Chapter 17: Love Is In The Air

_**AN: This chapter's dedicated to Danielle and ERS!!!**_

* * *

_I walked over to Cole, "It's okay Cole. I promise I'll look after you." I whispered to him as I lifted him into my arms and we all walked out of the building._

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen – Love Is In The Air**

He coughed himself awake. It was the fifth time he'd done this tonight and each time he'd gone back to sleep, so I didn't pay any attention to him until he said with a raspy voice, "Water?"

I sat up with a start, "You're awake!" I exclaimed.

"Water please." he said. I got up from the chair next to his bed and walked out of the room, down the stairs and into the kitchen to get him some water. I filled a jug and brought two glasses back to the room. He sat up groggily and I gave him a glass and filled it with water. He gulped down the water and held the glass out for more. I re-filled the glass and sat down by his bed, exhausted. I drifted off to sleep again, but woke when a large amount of water splashed all over me as the jug slipped from my hands and hit the floor.

"I'm so sorry!" I said realising the water had splashed all over him too, "You can sleep in the next bed while I clean this up."

"Anni, it's okay. Don't worry about it. You've been looking after me ever since that idiot smacked my head on the damn concrete floor." he said.

"Cole. You need rest. Trust me." I said pushing him back onto his pillows effortlessly.

"No Anni. You need rest. You've been up all day and all night and you had to carry me home and take care of me. I know what you've been doing. My mind's been active." Cole said sitting up again and knocking back my hand when I attempted to push him back down.

"I'm... not... tired!" I yawned, "Okay. Maybe a little tired, but that's not the point."

"Go to sleep!" Cole said.

"Mel's sleeping. I can't go back to my room without waking her up." I said.

Cole swept me off my chair and onto the bed next to him, "We can both sleep here." he said sleepily.

"Okay." I agreed and curled up in his strong arms.

"Anni?" Cole whispered into my ear.

"Mmm?" I replied half-asleep.

"C'mon I gotta get up now." he said.

"Get up then." I said, "I'm sleeping."

"I can't. You're on my arm." he chuckled.

"Oh! Sorry." I said rolling over until I couldn't feel his arm under me anymore. In fact, I couldn't feel anything underneath me for a split second and then I hit the ground with a _*thud*_.

"Oh Anni." Cole said wearily.

"Ow." I said as I picked myself up off the earthen ground. I dusted myself off and walked over to Cole, "I'm awake now." I grumbled and Cole laughed loudly.

"Okay. Let's go eat breakfast." he said.

"Has Alixx got supplies for us?" I asked.

"Yeah. He brought us some supplies this morning. Mel went to collect them." Cole said with approval in his voice.

"That's nice of him." I crinkled my nose in disgust as a putrid smell came to me. I looked down and realised I was still wearing the blood-stained shirt I was wearing yesterday, "I'm gonna get changed and I'll meet you at breakfast." I said.

"Kay. See ya." Cole said, turning to his own wardrobe.

I walked down the hallway to my bedroom and knocked on the door. There was no answer, so I walked in. Mel was probably off with Alixx or something. I couldn't blame her. I couldn't bear being away from Cole for a minute, let alone five whole years! I waltzed into my bathroom, had a really quick shower, changed, and ran downstairs to breakfast where I was greeted by everyone around the kitchen table. I walked over to Cole and peered into the fridge with him, "What's for breakfast?" I asked.

"I'm having cereal." he replied.

"Well you're boring." I said.

"Okay then. What are **you** having?" he asked.

"Mmm... I think I'll have... Froot Loops!" I exclaimed spotting a box on the counter.

"And **I'm** boring." he muttered.

"Well I'm going to have some strawberries too... I'm hungry you know!" I said hotly.

"Whatever." he chuckled as he poured himself a bowl of Froot Loops and milk.

"Huh. You like Froot Loops too?" I asked.

"Mmhmm. My favourite!" he replied.

"Oh! Mine too." I said as I took out a couple of strawberries and poured a bowl of Froot Loops and milk for myself. Cole sat down on a chair at the kitchen table and patted the seat next to him where I sat down.

"I've been meaning to talk to you since our abduction." he said and we both shuddered.

"Sure." I said.

"Well, I've been thinking. We'd be safer if we stayed at VH because there are so many people there and Walter knows where we are now. So, I think we should go back today." Cole said.

I sat stunned in my chair, with a spoonful of Froot Loops in my mouth.

"Anni, you need to chew." he said and slowly my mouth chewed.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because it's safer there. We just have to stay on-campus and around large crowds and we'll be fine." he said.

"But why were we abducted when we were in the garden?" I asked.

"Because we were alone." Cole said simply. By this time, the whole table had turned to listen to our conversation and the faces around the table were mostly of approving looks. There was only one face which was disapproving and that was Elli's. She looked mad and her face was contorted with anger.

"You should speak before your fat head explodes." I said.

"Ugh. Don't speak to **me** like that." she said disgustedly to me, then turned back to Cole and said, "I don't think we should go back. It was a shit-hole back at school, why leave **this** shit-hole to go back to a bigger one with **classes**."

"Because we've been double-crossed and now the whole dark world knows our whereabouts. If we're at school, no-one can attack us." Cole replied annoyed, "And school wasn't a shit-hole!" Cole added. Elli fell silent. She knew that Cole's word was final.

"I'm gonna find Mel and Alixx to tell them about our new plan. See ya'll later." I said uncomfortably.

"See ya Anni." everyone, except Elli, chorused back.

I took the stairs two at a time and headed down the hallway towards the trapdoor. It was slightly ajar so I knocked a couple of times before stepping through it.

"Hey Anni. I heard the conference you and Cole were having. That Elli bitch is a cow." Mel said as she saw me enter the room.

"No Mel. That'd be an insult to cows! She's a... she's a... well I don't know!" I said.

"Yeah!" Mel said.

"What can **I** do though?" Alixx asked suddenly.

"I was thinking about that and I came up with this. Stop me if you think it's stupid or something, but I think you should enrol in VH." I said turning to Alixx.

"That's brilliant Anni! Wonder why I never thought of it before." Mel said.

"I'm not sure Anni." Alixx said uncertainly.

"C'mon. What've you got to lose?" I asked him.

"Yeah. Plus, you could learn heaps there. What are you doing now? Nothing. You run an ice cream shop." Mel chimed in.

"Well, I s'pose when you put it **that** way." Alixx said as a grin spread across his face. I didn't need to read his mind to know that he was thinking of twenty-four-seven days filled with Mel.

"I'll go tell Cole then." I said.

"No need." Cole said suddenly from behind me, "I think it's a great idea Anni."

"Thanks." I said blushing profusely.

"We leave soon. Alixx, I'll help you pack. Anni, Mel, since we're the only ones who can transport anyone anywhere now, I don't think there's a point in running. We'll all just walk to school. And when the teachers ask us what we've been up to, we'll say Walter sent us on a top secret assignment that even the teachers aren't allowed to know about." Cole explained as he walked with Alixx out of the basement.

"Let's go pack." I said to Mel and helped her off the floor.

"There's not much to pack. What should we do after that?" she asked.

"Let's go kick Elli's butt!" I said and we both laughed.

We finished packing in ten minutes flat, and then walked to the living room where everyone was sitting on beanbags, clustered in groups talking or listening to the radio. We made our way over to Daniella and Rhys.

"Hi." I said.

"Hi." they replied.

"We haven't really met yet." I said.

"Yeah." Daniella laughed nervously.

"I'm Anni and this is Mel." I said.

"Rhys and Daniella." Rhys said standing up and shaking my hand.

"You guys new?" I asked.

"No. We've been vampires for seven months now." Rhys said.

"How'd you guys meet?" Mel asked.

"Well, we were friends before we were turned and when we were turned, we were new together. It was sorta... right place, right time kinda thing." Daniella explained.

"Nice." I said.

"How'd you and Cole become a... thing?" Rhys asked.

"He turned me." I replied simply.

"So it was... love at first sight?" Daniella asked dramatically.

"You could call it that." I replied and Daniella sighed blissfully.

"Well, we'd better go pack." Rhys said and whisked Daniella out of the room, "Bye."

"Bye." Mel and I replied. We made our way over to a solitary figure sitting by a radio.

"Hey Roxi." I said.

"Oh!" she exclaimed startled, "Hiya Anni. Hiya Mel."

"So we were wondering..." I started but trailed off awkwardly.

"Why you're so lonely?" Mel finished.

"Oh. Well, I like listening to music to get ideas for the stories that I write. People often like to leave me alone." Roxi replied.

"Oh okay then. We'll leave you to it." I replied.

"Kay. Bye." Roxi said to our retreating backs. We walked over to Annissa and our gang.

"Hey guys." Mel and I said, sitting down.

"Where've you guys been?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah! We haven't seen you in ages." Liam continued.

"You didn't desert us did you?" Lilli asked.

"Not desert... they dumped us... for their boyfriends." Jessica finished.

"We didn't dump you guys." Mel said defensively.

"They're telling the truth you know." Annissa said, "They've had it tougher than you all. Anni's had to tend to the sick all night and Mel's been collecting supplies for our trip."

"Speaking of our trip, we're leaving now." Cole announced with Alixx at his side. Mel sprang up from her crouched position and made her way to Alixx's side and I followed close behind her to get to Cole.

"Are we really leaving?" I asked.

"Yep." he replied and as we clambered out of the trapdoor, we looked back at our little house where so much love had taken place.

No one really spoke on our return trip to VH. When we got back, the teachers asked us where we'd been and we replied with, "Professor Walter took us on a top secret assignment. No teachers should hear about it." and they didn't question us, what with Annissa and Cole with us.

"I'll leave you here." Cole whispered to me as he led me to my door, "I love you."

"I love you too Cole." I replied and tip-toed until I could reach him to kiss him passionately on the lips.

"Oh get a room you two!" Jesse hollered, sticking his head out from a door at the other end of the hall. We all laughed and as Cole and I went back to kissing, Jesse stuck his head back into the room and sighed melodramatically.

**R&R Whaddaya think???**

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	20. Chapter 18: Back To The Usual

**Probs the shortest chapter I've written...**

**Anyway... dedicated to Danielle... I'm really sorry... You'll see why it's dedicated to you at middle-end part...**

**Also, dedicated to da Azns and da HON-Azns who love Dome... and Hungry Jacks chocolate thick-shakes in ML... and SHOPPING!!!**

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_"Oh get a room you two!" Jesse hollered, sticking his head out from a door at the other end of the hall. We all laughed and as Cole and I went back to kissing, Jesse stuck his head back into the room and sighed melodramatically._**Chapter Eighteen – Back To Usual**

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"So life continues as normal." I said as Cole and I walked next to a gaggle of blonde girls on our way to NT.

"Yep. As normal as possible." he replied sullenly.

"I liked it better when we were out in the city." I said.

"Well at least we've got the whole gang here in VH now." Cole replied.

"Yeah." I sighed. Although Mel had been happier now that Alixx had been taken in, I'd been missing Laura a lot lately.

"It'll be okay Anni. I know you and Laura were friends, but after all she was a snitch, a liar, a cheater. You can't believe that she's still good." Cole wrapped a protective arm around my shoulders and the blondes next to us gasped and then sighed. "Let's go. There's the training room." Cole said with a nod in the direction of the training room, and we crossed the pathway into the training room. It was already packed, as usual, and Cole planted a swift kiss on my cheek before he strode confidently to the front of the room in a business-like manner.

"We're learning the pitchfork manoeuvre. You make fists, then punch your opponent in the stomach and as they're bent over double, grab them under their arms and flip them over onto the floor. You have to make sure you don't go over with them or you'll end up on top of them." Cole explained to the class, 'Come here Anni.' he thought to me.

I walked to the front of the room, obeying him, "I'm going to show you the proper and improper way of doing this manoeuvre." Cole said and he motioned for me to stand on the platform with him, "Ready?" he asked me. I nodded as I clenched my stomach muscles so it didn't hurt as much. Cole's punches were well aimed and I barely felt them, but I doubled over as he had mentioned before and Cole easily flipped me over onto my back, exclaiming, "That was the perfect one!"

"Okay. You recovered enough?" he whispered to me, "We gotta show them the improper one."

"I'm fine." I breathed into his ear as I walked past him to get to my spot. He smiled at this and then balled his fists and punched me. He caught me completely off-guard and I bent over double. Cole sensed unease in me as he tucked his hands under my arms and flipped me onto the ground, but I felt him on top of me too and slowly, I opened my eyes. I saw his wonderfully wavy eyes stare into my panic-stricken ones and all my troubles ebbed away, then he leant into me, not being able to keep his balance on top of me for much longer, and we kissed. I realised very suddenly that while we were kissing, the whole class was holding their breath. In fact, I realised that the class was still staring at us after a few minutes and I broke the kiss, hearing a loud sigh from the class and a small grunt from Cole, "Class." I whispered into his ear. Immediately he froze. His limbs locked into place with mine and the waves died in his eyes. Now it was my turn to calm him, "It's okay. They already knew what was going on between us anyway. The other teachers won't find out." I kissed him on the cheek and hugged his rigid body, stroking his hair lovingly as the class started to work on the pitchfork manoeuvre. Slowly his body unfroze. He stood up and pulled me up with him, "Sorry." he muttered.

"I'm okay. What about you?" I asked.

"I'm fine now." he replied as the siren signalled for second period. I was glad that NT was a double period today. I could fit in love and training in the same session.

I walked over to Mel, who was standing inconspicuously in the corner of the room, waiting for me to finish up with Cole. Now that Mel had super strength, she would be my permanent partner. Mel seemed happy enough to be my partner **before** we left, but now that we'd returned, I could sense her mind squirming around, wanting to be with Alixx every minute of every day. I thought it was really sweet, but there was only so much of a person that I could take and even when** I** wasn't with Mel and Alixx, my **mind** was. Mel and I finished the activity in five minutes and sat down on the sidelines, drinking from our water bottles and giving tips to our peers.

"I'll... umm... see ya later kay?" Mel said getting to her feet.

"Yeah. See ya later." I said, daydreaming about Cole.

'Stop dreaming Anni.' Cole paused, searching my brains, 'Actually, it's okay if you're dreaming about me.' A gap appeared in the crowd and I saw a smile etched into Cole's perfect face which made me smile back.

"You need to flip her faster." I said lazily to Liam as I continued to stare at Cole and he stared back.

"But I don't want to hurt her!" Liam complained back.

"Hey! I can **heal**. I don't need protecting. I can defend myself!" Lilli said defensively, but I wasn't listening to their bickering, I was lost in my thoughts. I put up a barrier around my thoughts and sat, thinking hard about my relationship with Cole. I'd heard a quote once; it said: _T__he couple that fights the most is the one most in love... it shows they care enough to notice the other one screwed up and care enough to mention it to the person so they can fix it. When you stop fighting it means you stopped caring. _The thing I noticed the most about my relationship with Cole, was that we had never once bickered in it. I looked at Lilli and Liam, and Jesse and Jessica, and the fought at least once a day. I took down the barrier and glanced up at Cole, 'Does that mean I don't care?'

'You **do **care Anni. Alixx and I haven't fought once, and we're fine.' Mel thought to me. I didn't think to ask her how she knew what I was thinking about when I had my barrier up, but what she said really pissed me off.

I couldn't stand it anymore. I jumped to my feet and bounded straight over to Mel, yelling, "Geez! It's always about **you** and **Alixx**. You never think about anything or anyone else anymore. I get it, Mel, I really do. You haven't seen him in five years, blah blah blah... Cut the crap Mel! We all know you're in love! We all know you have the **perfect** relationship! So shut the hell up about it!"

The whole room was silent. I saw Mel on the verge of tears, "If that's how you felt," she whispered, "at least you said it to my face like a true best friend would." Suddenly, Mel did something I would never have guessed. I thought she would hit me or storm out of the room, but instead, she pulled me into a bone-crushing hug (she hadn't mastered the strength thing yet) and started crying on my shoulder. I squeezed her tightly back and hadn't noticed the silent tears that streamed down my face until a wretched sob issued from my throat and we laughed a bit.

"Awww..." the rest of the class said and Cole came up to us, tapped us on the shoulder and said we could leave if we wanted.

"Thanks Cole." I whispered to him as Mel and I walked silently, arm-in-arm, out of the building.

"I think we need a girl's day out." I said suddenly as we were halfway across the square.

"That's just what I was thinking!" Mel replied and we changed directions and headed towards the car-park. It was beautiful weather; the sky was overcast, the clouds almost about to burst. Mel and I took a taxi into town and walked down the main street, our hoodies drawn tight around our faces. First we went shopping, our purses considerably lighter after our big splurge at the shoe store. Mel had bought herself three pairs of stilettos, three pairs of flats, two pairs of boots, two pairs of sneakers, five pairs of converses and a new dress. I bought five pairs of stilettos, two pairs of boots, two pairs of flats, four pairs of converses, a really cute, midnight blue, sparkly dress, a new halter-neck black top, three different hoodies and a new hat that said "I  NY" on it, even though I'd never been to New York before. After this, we turned the corner and came across the coffee-strip.

"Where to?" I asked.

"Dome!" Mel replied and we walked into Dome, placed our orders and sat at a table. As we sat, we talked and it suddenly occurred to me that Mel had read my mind while I had my barrier up.

"How did you do it?" I asked.

"Do it?" she asked between mouthfuls of pasta.

"How did you read my mind with my barrier up?" I asked, sipping at my iced coffee.

"Oh so **that's** what the resistance was." Mel said and when I gave her a puzzled look, she explained, "I saw you sitting and looking thoroughly depressed about **something** and so I thought I'd probe your mind and find out what was troubling you. When I went into your mind, there was a slight resistance. It felt like a thick-skinned bubble and once I was in, I couldn't come out. I think it was so weak because you couldn't control your emotions any longer and also because we have a bond, so we should be tied together at all times."

"Probably." I sat, playing with my food and thinking about what Mel said when it occurred to me, "Does that mean Cole knew too?"

"What you were thinking?" Mel paused, "Yeah, probably. Perhaps he wasn't listening in though."

"No. Now that I think about it, I could definitely sense activity in my mind, that wasn't me." I replied. We finished off our food and walked back down the street, stopping at a Hungry Jacks to get a large chocolate thick-shake and small chips each. We also bought a few burgers and chips takeaway to stash in our secret compartment for eating later on in the week.

There was a soft melody playing from the inside of Mel's buzzing purse. Mel took out her mobile and flipped it open. She had received a message from Alixx asking if she was alright and where she was. Mel glanced at me and smiled, stowing it back in her purse. I then took out **my** mobile and phoned the taxi which picked us up fifteen minutes later. If only it'd come two minutes earlier, Mel and I may not have ended up in hospital.

"Trish?" I asked taking my sunglasses out as the sun peeped out from behind a cloud, "Billy?"

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**A bit sus hey??? What do you think? Love it? Hate it? Indifferent? Got any ideas for future chapters? I can't read your mind... although I really want to... lolz... MASH... vampyre... anyway, R&R please... lotsa smilezz =P**


	21. Chapter 19: What 2 Do When Ur BFF H8s U

**This is probs the longest chapter I've written... a contrast to the last one lolz =P**

**Anyway... dedicated to Candice ma bffl!!! I'm soooooo sorry!!!**

**Also dedicated to Laura... let's just say... you'll love you!!!**

**Happy Reading!!! =P**

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_"Trish?" I asked taking my sunglasses out as the sun peeped out from behind a cloud, "Billy?"_

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**Chapter Nineteen: What To Do When Best Friends Hate You**

"What the HELL are you doing here?" Trish yelled.

"I'm alive! I can go wherever the bloody hell I like!" I yelled back at her. We had moved into a darkened alleyway so I could take of my sunglasses and we could see each other properly.

"I am NOT being seen out in public with you!" Trish squealed and backed out of the hallway, but Mel sensed that I wasn't done yet and barred her way. "You've got a little friend Anni." Trish sneered.

"Actually Trish, meet my **best** friend, Mel." I said calmly, "Mel, this is my er... acquaintance, Trish."

"Best friend?" Trish laughed, "You've got to be joking! She looks like a blonde bimbo! You know the ones we used to **tease**?"

"Ha! Tease! Oh yeah. I'd really tease someone with the same hair colour as me. I mean I know I dyed it, but still! If you call **her** a blonde bimbo, what am I then?" I sniggered.

"You're a bitch!" Trish spat.

"No Trish. Just for that, **you're** the bitch. I'd never have thought that **you** of all people would call **me**, your ex-best friend, a bitch. Why don't you leave already? I'll come over there and bite you." I laughed.

"Fine! Bite me then! If that's what it takes to get my best friend back!" Trish yelled and crumpled into a ball on the dirty floor and bawled her eyes out like a starving baby in need of food.

I never expected this. I didn't need to read Trish's mind to know what had happened. I'd broken through. It had been hard on Trish for this last week or so, to live without me. I was everything to her. We had been joined at the hip; inseparable. She'd even turned down half the boys in the year, just because I said I wasn't going to the school social (she said she'd have stayed home with me if I hadn't have changed my mind). Trish was going through a rough patch, I mean, who **has** a vampire friend? Though, how did the vampires expect everyone and everything close to the newborn just suddenly not matter? An arm wrapped around me, "It's okay Anni." Mel soothed, "Let's go home."

"No." I said and I walked over to Trish, "Trish was my life before VH. I can't just leave her here. She's my everything. Everything before you and the twins. Everything before Laura became bad. Everything before Cole." I placed my arm around Trish, "I know how you feel honey."

Trish poked her head out from under her arms, stared at me for a little while, as if judging if I was really telling the truth, and then pulled me into a long hug, "I love you, you know?"

"Love ya too Trish." I replied.

"I gotta get home now. In fact," she glanced at her watch, "Shit!!! I'm gonna be late! New-dad's gonna kill me!"

"New-dad?" I gave her a puzzled look.

"I'll explain on the way. You **can** come with us right? I mean, we haven't caught up in ages." Trish asked.

"Sure, but I've got a faster way." I said, my eyes twinkling. "Climb on!" I said, indicating my back, "Mel, d'you mind taking Billy?"

Billy had been silent throughout the whole ordeal and at his name, he looked thoroughly terrified, "Sure Anni." Mel replied, relieved that I wasn't mad anymore.

Trish and Billy carried our shopping while Mel and I carried them and we raced off through the busy streets to Trish's house. We got there, two minutes later, not even panting or breaking a sweat.

"That was swee-eet!" Trish said as she handed me the millions of shopping bags that Mel and I had purchased.

"So what did you mean by your new-dad?" I asked.

"Ah... well, a couple of weeks after you left, I was getting quite depressed and...and... my dad he... died." she said shortly. "Mum remarried after a month. I can't believe her! The stupid cow! She should still be upset that dad killed him..." she broke off, clasping her hands to her mouth. "She should still be upset that dad died." she amended.

"It was because of you. Wasn't it?" I asked gravely.

"Yes." she whispered, leaning into my shoulder and sobbing hard until we heard a gruff voice from inside saying, "Oi! Trish! Get inside now!"

"Oh shit. We've been talking for ages." Trish wiped her tears, "Is my face red? New-dad hates when I cry about dad."

"Don't worry about it. I'll come in with you. We can say that it was like you started crying because you saw me." I replied taking her hand and leading her down the driveway to her front door. Trish unlocked the door and led Billy, Mel and I to the kitchen where we took out some chocolate milk and glasses and walked to Trish's room.

"Trish! Where's my dinner?" new-dad hollered.

"It's heating up in the microwave." Trish yelled back.

"So your new dad's name is Horace?" I asked.

"Yeah. How'd you know?" Trish asked, sitting on her beanbag.

I explained, with a little help from Mel, how my life as a baby-vamp had been different to anyone else's. I explained about my mind-reading, my bonds, my super-powers, my friends, and Cole (at this she bushed and fanned herself profusely).

"Awww! Anni, that sounds so sweet! I wish **my** boyfriend would be like that." Trish said nudging Billy jokingly in the ribs.

"Oh Anni. Why'd you have to bring up your love-life to Trish while **I'm** here?" Billy teased. It felt good to be here and back to normal.

After a nice afternoon, I looked out of the window and realised with a horrible jolt that the sun was setting a little too rapidly. Mel and I exchanged glances and I said to Trish, "I'm really sorry Trish, but we were meant to be sleeping now. Classes start soon."

"Oh shit! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to keep you so long. I probably should have realised. You should leave." Trish said jumping to her feet and sweeping us out of the house. "Promise you'll come visit me once in a while." she said getting teary.

"I promise." I replied.

"And you're welcome here anytime too." Trish said to Mel, hugging her tightly.

"See ya soon." I said.

"Yeah. See ya." she replied as Mel and I grabbed our shopping and jumped away.

When we got back, we jumped to our roof, went down into our apartment, dumped our shopping in our wardrobe, changed into our pyjamas really fast and jumped into bed, eager to get at least a few hours sleep before lessons started.

"Oi! Get up you two!" a male voice yelled and fists banged on our door.

"Ugh." I groaned.

"Mmhmm." Mel moaned and rolled over to get back to sleep.

"Anni, Mel! Get up now or I'll break down the door." I recognised that it was Cole's voice, so I struggled out of bed and stumbled to the door.

"Hmm?" I asked, opening the door.

"It's almost nine thirty." he replied.

"What'd we miss?" I asked.

"You missed NT." he replied, getting slightly edgy.

"Sorry." I replied yawning, "Mel and I got back really late. We sorta lost track of time."

"It's okay. You only had me. I don't know what you have now though." he said.

"Biology. Annissa'll be fine with it." I said, "I'll go talk to her later."

"Okay. I'll send the twins to wake you up at break." he said retreating from the door.

I shut the door and went back to bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

It felt like almost two minutes later that we were being woken up.

"Yeah. We're up!" I yelled, "Go away."

"We'd like to talk to you both." came Cole's voice from the other side of our door.

"Oh!" Mel said, sitting bolt upright and racing to the door.

"No! Wait! Don't open the door!" I yelled, scrambling under my doona. It was not the fact that I wasn't wearing anything, it was just that I wasn't wearing anything appropriate to be seen walking around in. I'm pretty sure my fluffy socks did not go with my tight black mini-shorts and no one would want to see me in my too-tight, too-small, too-orange singlet with Tigger on it which I'd had since I was about ten. It's not my fault that I still loved Pooh Bear.

"Come on Anni. We've all seen you in worse things. I'm sure." Cole said, glancing through the doorway to stare at me.

"No. You wouldn't understand. You'd laugh at me. It's too embarrassing." I said pulling the doona even further up to my chin.

'You do realise that I can see into your mind too right?' Cole thought.

"Oh for gawd's sake! Shit! You should have told me earlier!" I yelled at him, jumping out of bed, running to my wardrobe and locking the door in a blur so that no one could see me.

'Come out Anni! We all saw you anyway. You **know** we have impeccable sight. It's sharper than the average human eyesight.' Cole sighed.

"Ah!" I shrieked, "Today is sooo embarrassing."

"Just get changed in there, Anni." Mel said.

"Fine." I replied and I threw on my light, orange cardigan and my black Ugg Boots. I walked out of the wardrobe, checking my reflection in the mirror.

"I saw Walter." Alixx said, cutting to the chase.

"What?!?" Mel and I asked.

"Yeah. Me too. He's come back. You need to get to classes or he could expel you for wagging." Cole said.

"So it seems that he's gone along with our fake story of him taking us out on a mission." I said.

"It seems so." Alixx said.

"Anyway, we came to warn you, just so that you didn't get a shock when you saw her." Cole said.

"Her?" I asked, my senses picking up the change in mood and my keen ears picking up his mistake.

"Umm... Yeah. Her. He had a... a sex change." Alixx said trying to convince us unsuccessfully.

I glared at Cole until he said one word, "Laura."

"L-laura?" I stuttered.

"Yeah, but she's not going to hang out with **you **anymore. She's hanging out with –" Alixx began, but Cole silenced him with a go-there-and-I'll-kill-you-cause-you've-brought-up-the-past kind of look, but Alixx had said too much and both Mel and I were advancing on Alixx.

"Er... Well, I don't know anything." Alixx said getting defensive.

"Laura's hanging out with Elli and her gang." Cole said heartlessly.

"Oh." all of my hopes fell, along with my heart and my stomach. I felt Mel become unnaturally quiet and her appetite suddenly vanished.

"It's fine." I said monotonically.

"Yeah. Perfectly fine." Mel said in the same monotonous tone.

"Come on. It'll be fine." Alixx said walking around to Mel's side and wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"You'll work it out." Cole said just as reassuringly and came to embrace me.

I didn't realise I was crying silently until I saw tear-streaks on Cole's t-shirt. I hastily wiped my eyes on my sleeve and buried my face in Cole's broad chest.

"Come now," Cole said, "You've gotta go to next class."

"Ugh. Vampire Social History." Mel and I groaned in unison. Alixx and Cole laughed together and we shooed them out the door so we could get changed.

We got into some comfortable clothes and traipsed down the stairs to get some breakfast before we dashed off to history.

History was a drag. The only thing useful that I learnt was that vamps can turn themselves invisible and I made a mental note to ask Annissa about it the next time I had bio. It was the first history lesson I'd had ever and it just so happened that we were learning about the different correlations and we started talking about the abilities vampires get when they're adults; most of which I had already covered with Cole.

"Umm... Anni?" Mel asked tentatively, I assumed it was because she could feel the annoyance in me. I was sadly mistaken.

"What?" I asked irritably.

"We have LOTE next." she said.

"And?" I asked.

"Well, it's our first class with Laura in it and I'm not feeling very well so I'm going to get a slip so I can skip it. Do you think you'd be okay sitting through it by yourself?"

We'd stopped walking and were almost two metres away from the door to LOTE, "Sure." I replied as confidently as possible. The confidence on the outside didn't falter as Mel and I walked into the classroom, but the inside squirmed restlessly.

'It's okay Anni. You'll be okay. I'll talk to you while I'm in the nurse's wing.' Mel thought.

I nodded numbly in response. I'd just spotted Laura. She hadn't noticed me yet, but I hoped that when she did, she didn't talk to me.

Mel walked up to the front of the classroom as I took my seat at the back, the furthest seat away from Laura and Elli and co. Laura turned around and met my gaze steadily before she turned back to her new group of friends and whispered something hurriedly. The whole group cackled –I swear it was an evil cackle – and turned to look at me, Laura's face was full of fake innocence with just the slightest trace of a dead smirk.

'See ya at lunch. I'm sorry I couldn't stay.' Mel thought apologetically. I looked up and faked a smile at her until she'd left the room, when my smile faded to a grimace and then to a flat out grumpy face. I stared at the whiteboard for the rest of the lesson, taking down scarce amounts of notes and copying down the homework hastily before racing out the classroom door with Elli's laughs at my retreating back.

"Hey Anni." Laura said catching up with me. She said Anni as if it was a dirty word.

"What do you want?" I asked with a locked jaw.

"Oh I just wanted to say hi." she said. I looked into her face. Something seemed different about her.

"Yeah, well I don't want to talk right now." I replied and made to turn to the canteen.

"No! Wait!" she cried. It almost sounded pleading. I looked back at her face and any differences that I had noticed before were gone.

"Seriously Laura. You are getting on my nerves." I said through clenched teeth.

"I need your help Anni. Something's wrong with me." Laura said her voice became mystic, like the first time we met her. Then, her eyes did something funny; they flickered and turned a deep shade of purple.

"What do you mean?" I asked, pretending I hadn't noticed her strange eyes.

"What do you mean 'what do I mean'? I mean, piss of you stupid bitch, you're blocking the sidewalk." her mystic voice had died away and the horrible nasal voice that sounded too bitchy for her appearance returned.

"Well sor-ry!" I replied sarcastically and stalked off the sidewalk into the canteen secretly worrying about Laura and her health and mental stability, 'Laura, what is wrong with you?'

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**OMG!!! WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN!?!?!? What's wrong with Laura? Why's she all purple eyed and hanging out with Elli and co.??? ooh!!! wait and see!!!**

**R&R guys! I want some plot suggestions!!! I need your love for this story to be expressed in words you write in my reviews =P lotsa smilezz**


	22. Chapter 20: Laura

**Note: This chapter's dedicated to Laura my evil buddy!!! Hope you like you!!!**

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**_Note2: This chapter is written in 3rd person and about Laura. It has nothing to do with Anni. This is a purely informational chapter._**

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_"Well sor-ry!" I replied sarcastically and stalked off the sidewalk into the canteen secretly worrying about Laura and her health and mental stability, 'Laura, what is wrong with you?'

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**Chapter Twenty – Laura**

As she clambered out of bed, she caught her reflection in the long mirror beside her bed. Her eyes had dark rings permanently etched beneath them, her hair was flat and dead, her body was thin and weak, and her lips were parched and cracked. She studied the place where a deep gash had appeared only a few days ago. The skin had healed leaving a small scar beneath her collarbone, yet the emotions attached to the cut were so overpowering that she had to sit down again. Turning to the dark side has been detrimental to her health, both physically and mentally. Sometimes she wished that she and Anni and the gang could live happily ever after. She wished that Walter hadn't injected her with that experimental controlling drug, now she would turn evil whenever certain emotions came up, or whenever Walter wanted her to. She wished that Lilith hadn't chosen **her** and she had a normal correlation; or even none. That's the whole reason Walter had chosen her to join the darkness with Kris and Aliss.

"Why can't they leave me alone?" she said to herself. Laura had a room to herself. Her roommate had run away from VH and was most certainly dead. Sometimes vamps can go into denial and that's when you know that they will surely die in a few hours. Their body changes, it's stuck between human and vamp, sometimes patches of tanned skin appear upon the white, other times their hair recedes and they are left with none at all. The most common ways of recognising denial though is if the being becomes suddenly anti-social, they skulk around in darkened alleyways, their sleeping pattern is reverted back to human times, their bodies become thin and weak, and they get frequent blood noses. Laura was afraid that she'd end up in denial. She had nothing and no one to cling to. All her friends had ditched her when she had crossed over, although she didn't blame them. She didn't expect them to support her when they were fighting for the complete opposite. Although she did hope that they'd see that it wasn't really her, that she wanted what was best for the world and that it was all Walter's doing.

Bringing up all these thoughts always made her think of the one encounter she had had with Anni since her return to VH. The way Anni's voice had sounded so disgusted, yet so hurt when she talked to her. When Laura's eyes had changed and she became the stupid stuck-up-bitch-of-a-girl that Walter had created her to be, she saw recognition in Anni's eyes which sparked a small fire of hope deep down inside her, she just needed help bringing it to the surface of the darkness, lighting it up until it was all gone; but that wasn't possible at this time.

Thinking of Anni and her group always made Laura thoroughly depressed and being depressed is closer to the darkness than the light. She looked up in time to see her eyes flick from misty blue-gray to deep purple. She hated turning. It felt as if her body was a ship on auto-pilot and she was trapped inside the ship, banging her fists on the walls, trying to get out. Laura's mind was active, but her new persona, Laura 1, was the empty shell, her body.

Laura got dressed and headed downstairs to Elli and co. She hated them and would have loved to tell Anni all the stupid things they fussed over, like hair, and makeup, and if they should eat the salad or a handful of carrot sticks instead. There was only one thing that she liked about being part of Elli's group and that was that Ryan was part of it. Laura was utterly in love with Ryan. She was devoted to serving his every need, good or bad. The problem was that Laura 1 didn't like him and didn't care if Laura liked him. She acted stupidly in front of Ryan, making Laura both embarrassed and mad, driving Laura 1 to pursue this track so she could be out more.

Meanwhile in the teachers' quarters, Walter was keeping a track on Laura with small secret cameras and microphones, planted in her clothing. He was extremely excited to tell his bosses of this new establishment.

Walter knocked softly, but excitedly on the hard, wooden door.

"Enter." came a weary voice.

"I'm sorry to bother you, your lord and ladyship, but I come with great news." Walter said meekly.

"Continue." the cool, smooth voice of Aliss floated seductively towards Walter and wrapped around him in enticing snares.

"Laura's alter is taking control of her body, inhabiting it as her own. Laura only had to be injected once before her body responded to the serum and did it by herself." Walter explained hurriedly.

"And..." Kris asked from the other side of the room.

"And I just thought you should know that our test subject has such a well equipped body for this experiment, and that it actually works."

"Well of course she has a well equipped body. She has a correlation with Lilith. Exactly why we need her on **our **side." Aliss said matter-of-factly.

"Well, I'm just going to leave you two to it then." Walter said, bowing and backing out of the room.

Aliss and Kris started talking again, seeming much undisturbed by Walter's interruption. Walter walked back to his dorm, his head hung low, not looking where he was going. He was pondering his choices of serving these vile creature-like masters when – who better to bump into – he walked into Anni.

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**R&R thanxx... btw... it's ma b'day!!! wish me happy b'day!!! yay!!! lalala!!! anyway... please r&r... i'm not evil like walter and Aliss and Kris... -_- have fun reading =P**


	23. Authors Note

**Note:** **Yo everyone! It's great that you're reading my story and all, but I'm editing the first few chapters, so I won't write anymore chapters for a while.**

**I'll tell u when I update the chapters...**

**xxx Jenn xxx**


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